Sikkim flood: Indian Army provides assistance to more than 1,700 tourists including foreign nationals stranded at Lachung

Lachung (Sikkim) [India]: The Indian Army continued its assistance for the stranded tourists at Lachung in Sikkim by providing medical care, food and communication, days after a deluge caused by a glacial lake outburst gripped the region.

The Trishakti Corps of the Indian Army continued assistance to more than 1700 stranded tourists including 63 foreign nationals and locals.

“Trishakti Corps in its continued assistance to more than 1700 stranded tourists including 63 foreign nationals and locals at Lachung, provides medical care, food and communication. The weather continues to be inclement. Aviators of the Indian Army carried out emergency sorties,” the Trishakti Corps posted on X.

Earlier in the day, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra visited the flood-affected areas and met with the flood victims at a relief camp in Sikkim’s Mangan.

MoS Mishra said that a team of six ministries has been constituted to build the infrastructure once again in the disaster-hit state.

“It is a very big tragedy. It is really a big crisis, there’s a huge loss, people are missing, and many casualties happened too. There’s a huge loss in road connectivity. PM Modi talked to the state CM on how to make things go back to normal,” MoS Mishra said while speaking to media after visiting the affected areas.

He further said, “We are continuously trying to rescue people who are missing. Home Minister Amit Shah has made a team of six ministries including agriculture, road & transport, energy, water, finance and home ministry is leading it to build the infrastructure once again.”

As per the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority (SSDMA) report of October 8, the death toll was registered at 33 with 105 people still reported missing. It said 2563 people have been rescued, and 1634 houses have been damaged in the flash flood.

The Lhonak glacier in the Sikkim Himalayas burst on October 3, breaching one side of the lake leading to the rise in the water levels in Teesta and inundating several areas of the state.