With roads and bridges washed away and rescue teams yet to reach the epicentre of the north Sikkim flash floods, activists who have opposed the construction of large hydel projects on river Teesta are refusing to call the tragedy only a natural disaster.
The lower part of the Lhonak glacier in the Sikkim Himalayas started to overflow and breached one side of the lake on the night of October 3. This led the water in river Teesta to rise abnormally and swept away several areas including the 1,200 MW dam at Chungthang in Sikkim’s Mangan district. Experts have described the phenomenon as a glacial lake outburst flood.
Also read: Sikkim flash floods updates | Track live updates here
“It is not only a natural disaster. Construction of such a big hydel power plant at a high altitude in Sikkim’s fragile ecosystem was a human-made mistake. The floods would not have caused such huge damage had it not been for the hydel power project,” said Gyatso Lepcha, general secretary of Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT).
The 1,200 MW dam Teesta Stage III hydro power project located in the Mangan district at Chungthang village was commissioned in February 2017 and in a little over six years the dam collapsed resulting in inundation of large areas of the State.
“We don’t know the extent of damage to the dam as rescue teams are yet to reach the epicentre. The rescue team is on the way but there is no road connection and the weather continues to pose a problem,” District Collector Mangan, Hem Kumar Chettri, told The Hindu . The DC said that about 60 to 70 houses have been washed away in Mangan district and about 10,000 to 20,000 people have been affected. According to the DC, several roads and seven bridges have been washed away in the deluge. Mr. Chetri also said that there are a lot of rumours milling around and the people should not panic.
The death toll in Sikkim due to the tragedy has increased to 18 and about 100 persons are still missing .
A communication from the Ministry of Defence ( MOD) on Thursday said that search and rescue operations by the Indian Army for the 23 missing soldiers continue and one soldier has been rescued so far. “All the other Indian Army personnel posted in Sikkim and north Bengal are safe and they are unable to contact their family members due to disruption in mobile communication,” a communication from MOD added.
Rescue efforts from October 6
An advisory issued by the Government of Sikkim said that those stranded in Mangan district are requested not to panic as the State government has assured to extend all possible help and support in the evacuation process starting from October 6 subject to weather conditions.
The advisory stated that in view of the unprecedented emergency situation created by flooding of Teesta River, all tourists planning to visit Sikkim are advised to postpone their travel to a later date after the situation normalises. Educational institutions have also been shut in the mountainous State.
Commenting on the situation, Mr. Lepcha said that the tragedy was exacerbated because of construction of hydel power projects at a high altitude in the fragile ecosystem of Sikkim. He added that there are 12 hydel power projects in Teesta and its tributaries in Sikkim, a State which falls under the Seismic Zone IV/V and records one of the highest annual rainfall in the country.
The activist called for the decommissioning of the Teesta IV Power Station (510 MW) project and the scrapping of the Teesta V (520 MW) project which is under a proposal stage.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Governor. C.V. Ananda Bose who is visiting flood-affected areas of north Bengal said that in the name of development we cannot destroy ecology. “Whatever does not make ecological sense will not make economic sense,” the Governor said, adding that there needs to be a balance between ecology and development. The floods in the Teesta river basin have affected districts of north Bengal like Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri.
The West Bengal government in a press statement said that there are about 7,000 tourists stranded in Sikkim of which 2,000 are from West Bengal. About 3,584 people from north Bengal are in relief camps.
