59 tourists airlifted from north Sikkim as rescue ops resume
They were among the 109 tourists stranded in north Sikkim's Lachung for nearly a week.
Two MI-17V5 helicopters left for Chaten in north Sikkim from Pakyong airport near state capital Gangtok in the early morning after the weather cleared. While 39 tourists returned on one copter, 20 returned on another, officials said.
Among those rescued were two foreigners, they said.
Sikkim Nationalised Transport has deployed buses to help these rescued tourists reach Siliguri in West Bengal.
An additional helicopter has been kept on standby at Pakyong airport for those who want to travel to Bagdogra near Siliguri by air.
The two helicopters flew to Chaten with personnel from the NDRF and Power Department, and engineers of Airtel, who would work in the region for restoring essential services, they said.
These 109 tourists were brought to Chaten for air evacuation, they added.
The tourists were accommodated in hotels and at the Chaten military camp, an officer said.
Helicopter sorties from the Pakyong airport were suspended on Wednesday due to bad weather in north Sikkim, delaying evacuations.
On Sunday, three Army personnel were killed and six soldiers went missing after landslides hit a military camp at Chaten. Several others were also injured.
The search operations for the six missing personnel have been hampered by bad weather conditions, unstable ground, and the challenging high-altitude terrain, an official said.
The ongoing relief operations in north Sikkim faced a critical setback after two key bridges over the Taran Chu river, situated between Munshithang and Chaten, were washed away by incessant rains, severing motorable access to Chaten from Lachen.
Three days ago, 1,678 tourists were rescued from Lachung and Chungthang, while 33 others, including two US nationals, were successfully airlifted before the sorties were suspended on Wednesday.
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Indian Express
18 hours ago
- Indian Express
Once upon a time in Dharali: The stories that lie buried by flash floods that swept away over 60
Growing up in Dharali village, Birodh Singh helped his father on their three-acre apple orchard. It was the perfect place to be — the pristine Bhagirathi on one side, the Kheer Ganga, its tributary, on the other. Tall deodar trees ringed the orchard, beyond which was an expanse of green that, over the years, would be built upon recklessly. Near the orchard was the Kalp Kedar mandir, which, depending on who you spoke to, was built a few hundred years ago or by the Pandavas of the Mahabharata. At 13, Singh would turn the soil over, plant new apple saplings, nurture the existing trees and spend lazy afternoons biting into the fruit and catching a siesta. On August 5, Dharali was struck by flash floods in three consecutive waves, wiping out homes and washing away over 60 people. It was the first of two big flash floods to strike in the space of two weeks — days after, on August 14, nearly 900 km away, a similar tragedy unfolded in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district. In Dharali, the first tide of debris was accompanied by a loud crash, and people surrendered to nature's fury. More tides of mud and debris returned, this time far quieter, as they swallowed humans, mules, houses and hotels, and, with these, the very memory of the village. Only the old settlements survived — the ones located away from the soft alluvial fan, the deposit from an earlier flood. The Kheer Ganga — angry, wounded and grey with slush — has reclaimed its wetlands, where, until weeks ago, stood homes, hotels and shops, the result of frenzied construction to cater to an ever growing rush of tourists. For a few hours, the bend of the river changed. Now, 10 days after the floods, rescuers of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) continue to look for remains of the people and places that made up Dharali. 'It's almost as if my orchard never existed. The orchard was my family's only source of income. I don't even have photos of the 300 trees I had,' says Birodh, sitting on a bench along the highway to Gangotri that now lies broken and buried under metres of slush. 'I got three of my daughters married from the income from the orchard. I have nothing now,' says Birodh. As he speaks, Birodh makes space on the bench for Kushal Singh Panwar. Kushal and friends Kushal has stuck to a routine for as long as he can remember: wake up at 5 am, head straight to his apple orchard and, around 9 am, leave for the market, at the heart of which stood his 11-room hotel. After a round of stocktaking, he would walk over to the hotel owned by Mukesh 'Munna' Panwar. On August 5, both the hotels were washed away — and with that, the only life Kushal had known. 'Mukesh's hotel was the village adda (hangout spot). It's gone. All the young men I knew (Mukesh, Shubham Negi and Akash Panwar) are gone too,' he says. Mukesh was with his wife Vijaita and their three-year-old son Anik were at their hotel when the floods swept through Dharali. All three of them are among the 68 people still missing. Mukesh's elder son, six-year-old Adhiksh, was at their home in Uttarkashi, nearly 80 km from the village, so he could go to school that day. Kushal says Mukesh was not supposed to be in Dharali that day. 'The family stayed in Uttarkashi. Mukesh would come to Dharali only during the tourist season. He was rarely here between July and September. This time, they had come for the village mela. I went to Mukesh's hotel a day before the floods and met the family. The little boy was so happy,' he recalls. Nearly 60 km away, in Gawana village of Uttarkashi district, Mukesh's elder son, six-year-old son Adhiksh, refuses to leave his uncle Ashok Chauhan's arms. The boy whimpers, as if in pain, as Ashok tries to put him in his nani (maternal grandmother) Ujala Devi's lap. 'I had seen a video of the disaster and hoped that Vijaita had left the village. When my mother said she was still in Dharali, I knew instantly that Vijaita was gone. Her hotel had been swept away. No one stands a chance in a disaster like that.' Still sitting hunched on the bench, Kushal turns philosophical — everyone's responsible for the tragedy and yet, no one. 'We are to be blamed for what happened, so is the government. Had these hotels been built at least 30 metres from the river and the channel, the scale of the catastrophe may have been smaller. But then, what else can you do here? There are no other employment opportunities, so if one enterprise is successful, others follow,' he says. 'That's why so many of us — Mukesh, Shubham (Negi) and Akash (Panwar) — ran hotels here in Dharali. Now they are all gone.' The search for Shubham Shubham Negi was at his hotel for a 'youth collective meeting' with friends Akash Panwar, Sumit Negi, and Gaurav Panwar when the floods hit. At Shubham's house in Dharali, his wife Komal, 28, says they were childhood sweethearts. 'We were friends in school and then he moved to another school. We started dating in 2015. We had our share of fights and heartbreaks, but, through it all, he was my best friend,' she says. Komal says that when they decided to marry, her family objected since they belonged to different castes. 'His family agreed, but my parents did not attend my wedding. They gave in eventually. We got married in January 2024. All I am left with are Shubham's memories and photos,' she says. The recovery of Akash's body on August 6 had confirmed the family's worst fears about the fate of the other three. However, Komal says she is still holding on to hope that Shubham would have managed to get to some place safely. In fact, after Akash's body was recovered, Komal fought with the administration and hopped on a helicopter to Harsil to look for Shubham there. 'I visited the spot he would go to everyday in Dharali. Two days ago, I spotted a few men sleeping under a rock near a temple in the village. I lifted the blanket, hoping I would find Shubham. I went to the spot where his hotel stood. I asked the NDRF to use their detectors to scan the debris. But they said it won't work if the debris is deep. I will not give up until I see him or his body,' says Komal. On August 13, she went back to the site of Shubham's hotel. 'I found a black hoodie near his hotel. He was wearing a black hoodie that day, but this was a different one,' she says. A week after the incident, when someone suggested that the government might declare all missing persons dead, Komal was furious. 'I will not let them give me a death certificate before they find something. How can the government say they need to rebuild roads before they bring in heavy machines to clear the debris? Does it take two weeks to build roads?,' she says, holding back tears. Other lost memories The highway to Gangotri that ran through Dharali doesn't exist; in its place is a stream. Large boulders cover what was once a salon in the village run by Rakesh Thakur. Locals say it was the rendezvous point for all the migrants, most of them, like Rakesh, from Bihar. The Kalp Kedar temple, too, was central to their lives. It now lies in ruins, with many feared trapped inside. Of the 68 missing people, 13 are workers from Bihar. Every Janmashtami, a group of 45 migrant workers would assemble at the temple to prepare a bhog (feast) for the entire village. It was a practice that Devraj Sharma, a carpenter from Bihar, started years ago. Devraj and his two sons are among the men from Bihar who are among the missing. Dharali cannot move on without the temple being restored. It was here that the village assembled for daily aarti at 6 pm. It's also where the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) held their medical camps. The ITBP, which holds its medical camps on the village temple premises, was among the first responders when the floods struck. Among its many personnel is Dr Archana, an Assistant Commandant Medical Officer. Deployed at the ITBP's Uttarakhand headquarters in Nelong Valley, around 40 km from Dharali, since July 2024, the Haryana resident is the only healthcare link for Dharali, Mukhwa, Harsil, and Bagori villages. Though a primary healthcare centre runs out of Mukhwa, 3 km away, villagers prefer to flock to her office for their health needs. On August 5, hours after the floods, Dr Archana reached the village around 4 pm. From sutures to assisting pregnant women, she tended to all. From Dharali, the victims were rushed to the ITBP's Kopang outpost, around 8 km away. While administering first aid, her mind was occupied by thoughts of the priests at the Kalp Kedar temple. 'Whenever we held a camp at the temple, they would feed me, help me with errands. When it was time for the 6 pm aarti, I would join them. I have yet to hear back from them,' she says. Scrolling through her phone, she stops at a picture of her at the temple, playing with two dogs. 'I thought the flood had hit only a few structures. By the time I reached Dharali, the entire village was under mud,' she says. These days, Dr Archana spends hours checking her patient records. 'I don't have everyone's contact numbers but I am checking my records for other names so I can find out if they are safe,' she says. Another day at Dharali, at a rescue site, sudden barks from a cadaver canine put the ITBP personnel on high alert. 'Is there something over there?' asks an onlooker, as rescuers dig, only to unearth a mule's carcass. 'This could take weeks,' says a rescuer, getting back to digging.
The Hindu
a day ago
- The Hindu
In pictures: Tumult in the Himalayas
In this photograph taken on June 18, 2013, the Kedarnath Temple (centre, foreground) is pictured amid flood destruction in the holy Hindu town of Kedarnath, located in Rudraprayag district in the northern Uttarakhand. Most roads on the way to Badrinath and Kedarnath have been washed away due to landslides in Uttarakhand on June 30, 2013. This handout photograph released on July 2, 2016 by the Indian Army shows soldiers searching for survivors of a landslide following torrential rains in Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh area. Rescue and relief work is under way after several vehicles, including two buses were swept away by a massive landslide at Kotrupi in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district on August 13, 2017. A damaged bridge is seen as a heavy gush of flood water flows into the Ravi in Himachal Pradesh's Chamba on September 25, 2018. Flood water gushes down after a cloudburst in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on August 12, 2019. Cars are trapped in flood water due to heavy rain after a cloudburst at Mcleodganj near Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh on July 12, 2021. An under-construction bridge on a river along a national highway between Pithoragarh and Champawat at Chalthi in Uttarakhand collapsed on October 19, 2021 following heavy rains. In this January 9, 2022 image, large cracks are seen on the walls and roads leading to Vishnupuram area in Uttarakhand's Joshimath. NDRF and SDRF personnel demolish a hotel that has been marked unsafe in the land subsidence-affected area in Uttarakhand's Joshimath on January 25, 2023. A road is damaged after a landslide at Chamba in Uttarakhand's Tehri district on August 21, 2023. Stranded pilgrims board an IAF helicopter after they were rescued in landslide-hit Kedarnath on August 5, 2024. Relief and rescue operations are under way at Dharali in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi on August 6, 2025. This handout satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a general view of the town of Dharali almost four months before it was hit by floods.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
46 dead, 100-odd injured, many missing as cloudburst wipes out pilgrims' camp in J&K's Kishtwar
JAMMU/SRINAGAR: Flash flooding within moments of a cloudburst Thursday wrought tragic devastation on a pilgrimage pit stop at Chishoti in J&K's Kishtwar district, killing at least 46 people – most of them pilgrims on the return leg of the Shri Machail Mata Yatra – and injuring over 100. Scores of pilgrims were reported missing as Army, police, NDRF and other agencies mounted a search operation and rescued around 160 people in the few hours before dusk set in. Most of the reported casualties were found around a langar (community kitchen) set up for pilgrims, officials said. " I am unable to hold back my tears. The situation is bad," PTI quoted BJP's Kishtwar MLA Shagun Parihar as saying from Chishoti. At Paddar, the town closest to the disaster zone, leader of the opposition Sunil Sharma told reporters that 100-odd people were missing. "There are mud-caked bodies and critically injured people all around. The death toll could rise," he said. The cloudburst occurred between noon and 1pm, causing rapidly filling rivulets to swamp a swathe of the valley. The camp set up for pilgrims bore the brunt of the damage, leaving a mud-filled gorge where the langar stood. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Undo Floodwaters washed away several other structures, including a security post. Dozens of vehicles were damaged. "Two CISF personnel were among the victims. Many of the pilgrims who died were having lunch in the langar when disaster struck," an official said. Chishoti is about 90km from Kishtwar town and the last stop before pilgrims trek 8.5km to the ancient Machail Mata shrine. The 43-day Shri Machail Mata Yatra, which commenced on July 25 and was to continue till Sept 5, has been suspended. "I just spoke to the Union home minister @AmitShah to brief him about the developing situation in Kishtwar region of Jammu," CM Omar Abdullah wrote on X, also announcing the cancellation of his scheduled "At Home" tea party on Independence Day. "My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the cloudburst and flooding in Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir. The situation is being monitored closely. Rescue and relief operations are underway. Every possible assistance will be provided to those in need," PM Narendra Modi wrote on X. IGP (Jammu zone) Bhimsen Tuti said the administration had "activated" control rooms and help desks across Kishtwar to provide updates about the rescue efforts. Many of the injured are at Paddar sub-district hospital while those requiring specialised medical attention have been shifted to the district hospital in the headquarters town. "I don't have words to describe what has happened. There are scores of injured in the hospital. We don't have a count yet of how many people have been separated from their families," said Pooja Thakur, chairperson of the District Development Council of Kishtwar. J&K lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha said the IAF was on standby for evacuation of survivors from the affected zone. "Men and machinery have been put at the site. Other teams have also been rushed…I am constantly monitoring the situation."
