Gangtok:

In a sign of his commitment to his constituents, an MLA ziplined across a surging river in flood-hit Sikkim to take stock of the situation in a town that has been worst-hit by the floods. 

Samdup Lepcha is the legislator from the Lachen Mangan constituency. Chungthang, which saw parts of the 1200-MW Teesta III Dam being washed away, is part of his constituency and has borne the brunt of the flash floods that hit the state on Wednesday, resulting in the deaths of at least 53 people.

On Saturday, Mr Lepcha was leading a team from Pegong village in Mangan district to Chungthang, where residents have been complaining of inadequate relief efforts. The only log bridge leading to Chungthang has been washed away and, on the suggestion of his team, Mr Lepcha decided to take the only route available to them. 

A video shows the MLA suspended from two ropes as he is given a little push by security personnel. Mr Lepcha is seen smiling initially, but the danger becomes immediately apparent when he is seen dangling over the angry Chungthang River, swollen with floodwater, with just the temporary zipline holding him aloft. 

Sources said Mr Lepcha and his team, which also included the Deputy Inspector General of Police and Chungthang’s Sub-Divisional Magistrate, were the first senior officials from the administration to reach the cut-off town since the flash floods hit.

Devastation

Residents of Chungthang said that when the South Lhonak Lake in the upper reaches burst its banks, flooding the Teesta River and sending floodwater rushing downhill, the existence of the Teesta III dam caused a whirlpool in the town, ravaging it. The floodgates and several other structures of the dam, which is the biggest in the state, were washed away by the river’s fury. 

They complained that relief efforts in the town have not been up to the mark and claimed that none of the stranded residents were airlifted in the three days since the flood hit. 

A resident said two prominent villages close to the town, Lachen and Lachung, which are popular with tourists, have been completely cut off

Soldiers Among Dead

At least 53 people, including 8 soldiers, have been killed and over 140 people are missing since the flash floods hit the state on Wednesday. 

The Sikkim government has reported that 1,173 houses have been severely damaged and over 2,000 people have been rescued. At least 14 bridges have been submerged or washed away, disrupting connectivity to North Sikkim.

After a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang on Friday, officials had said reopening road connectivity to Chungthang is being prioritised. Compensation of Rs 4 lakh has been announced for the families of the dead.

New Delhi:

New high-resolution satellite imagery from Friday accessed by NDTV shows the exact site of the breach at the high-altitude South Lhonak Lake in Sikkim which resulted in disastrous floods, causing the loss of at least 50 lives.

Significantly, the images show exposed parts of the lake’s banks, indicating that the water level continues to drop significantly after draining out of the breach, and causing massive floods along the Teesta River basin downstream.

There is also evidence of a landslide, which may been a contributing factor in the lake bursting its banks. 

“The glacier has significant snow presently, and this snowpack might have exerted tremendous pressure on the snout of the lake, which gave rise to the breach,” said Arup R Dasgupta, Managing Editor of Geospatial World (formerly GIS Development) magazine, and a veteran ISRO imagery expert. 

The South Lhonak Lake is located at an altitude of 17,100 feet in the upper reaches of northern Sikkim, not too far from the India-China boundary. 

The new images show the exact area where there was a breach in the glacial lake.  One of the images indicates that water continued to flow out from the lake even on Friday, three days after it burst its banks. 

As a result of the decreased level of water in the lake, a large area of the shoreline is now exposed, an area which was under water just three days ago. 

In fact, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists have already stated that the area covered by the lake reduced by more than half, with only an estimated 60.3 hectares of water in it.

The South Lhonak Lake was also fed by glacial run-off from the retreating North Lhonak glacier and the main Lhonak glacier. This increased the lake’s surface area by 500 metres and average depth by 50 metres, Dr SN Remya, the lead scientist of the 2013 paper, said.

Images from February this year show that the lake was entirely frozen, though a pattern of fractures on the surface of the ice is clearly visible. 

However, Friday’s image shows a large volume of broken ice, and ice floes (sheets of floating ice), on the surface of the lake. It is not clear if the ice gave way because of the flow of underlying water which rushed to the breach or had melted substantially over the summer months. 

“The ice cover on the lake in the first images shows a regular fracture pattern, which indicates that the ice sheet was under pressure, possibly from the glacier. This pressure was perhaps increased due to fresh snow on the glacier as seen in the second image. This might have led to the breach,” said Mr Dasgupta.

The image from October 6 also shows clear evidence of a landslide on one of the banks of South Lhonak Lake. It is unclear if the landside resulted in the displacement of water and was a contributory factor, which resulted in the lake breaching its banks.

“In Sikkim, lake-terminating glaciers have shown accelerated growth… South Lhonak glacier is no different. It is one of the fastest-retreating glaciers and the associated proglacial South Lhonak Lake has become the largest and fastest-growing in the state… this has raised concerns about hazard potentials as downstream (areas) are heavily populated…” a study published in the journal Geomorphology highlighted in 2021.

New Delhi:
At least 53 people, including seven soldiers, have died in the Sikkim flash floods, with 27 more dead bodies found in the Teesta river bed in neighbouring West Bengal over the last three days. Seven of these bodies have been identified.

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New Delhi:
At least 19 people, including six soldiers, have died in the Sikkim flash floods, and 103 people, including 16 soldiers, remain missing. Over 3,000 tourists are stranded, 2,500 people have been evacuated and 6,000 have been moved to relief camp.

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