GANGTOK: The Indian Army is still conducting a search and rescue effort for the 22 missing soldiers. In the meantime, Trishakti Corps soldiers are providing emergency medical care and phone service to stranded residents and visitors in North Sikkim’s Chungthang, Lachung, and Lachen regions. According to reports, ongoing efforts are being made to extricate the automobiles buried beneath the slush at Burdang near Singtam. Currently, the areas downriver of the Teesta River are the main focus of the search for the missing people. On the evening of October 4, one of the initial 23 missing people was found alive.The situation has been communicated to and shared with the families of the missing people. Due to mobile connection outages, all other Indian Army personnel stationed in Sikkim and North Bengal are safe but are unable to reach their family members. The Indian Airforce is managing the disaster relief efforts in the region. The commanding officer of the helicopter unit in Jammu, Wing Commander Irfan Jairal, stated that Sikkim’s residents should have faith in the air force and that they will be saved. The Air Force claimed that several tools were being employed for the disaster relief missions, and that the biggest difficulty was the lack of a landing area. Equipment used in the operations, such as specialised leadders, oxygen, watercraft, lifting cradles, and slings, is being sent to Sikkim. The MI-17 1 V Helicopters have been particularly outfitted with strechers inside for the disaster operations. Under the direction of Cabinet Secretary Shri Rajiv Gauba, the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) convened on Wednesday and discussed the situation in Sikkim. Three teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have already been sent out, and two more teams are waiting in Patna and Guwahati. The Sikkim Government stated on Wednesday that 14 people had already perished as a result of the flash floods that hit Sikkim early on Wednesday.All 14 of the dead were civilians, while 102 persons are still unaccounted for. It’s possible that more than 3,000 tourists will be stuck across the State. In the tunnels of the Teesta Stage 3 dam in Chungthang, 12–14 workers are still trapped. Chungthang in the Mangan district, Dikchu, Singtam in the Gangtok district, and Rangpo in the Pakyong district have all reported injuries and missing people.
