Saturday, 04 May 2024
Saturday, 04 May 2024
The Indian Army, along with the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) that functions under the defence ministry, launched search and rescue operations and recovered the bodies. Twenty people who got stuck in the avalanche were rescued.
Tourists flock to Sikkim, located below Mount Khangchendzonga, also known as Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world.
Nathu La serves is a route for the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage to Mount Kailash in China, considered one of the holiest pilgrimages in Hinduism
According to army sources, around 11.10am on April 4, the avalanche hit Jawaharlal Nehru Road. “A massive avalanche hit the Gangtok-Nathu-la JLN Road near MS 15. Troops of the Trishakti Corps of the army and teams of the BRO launched a rescue mission,” said an army official.
Tourists were not allowed to go to Tsomgo Lake and Baba Mandir on Tuesday because of snowfall, and permits were issued till 13th Mile — a spot on the way to the lake — said sources in the Sikkim police.
The state disaster management team and the state police also joined in the search and rescue mission. They rescued 350 other tourists and 80 vehicles that got stranded at the spot. An avalanche, a resident said, is a rare phenomenon in that part of Sikkim.
Rescue teams made final checks on Wednesday for anyone still trapped in an avalanche that swept down on a road in the Indian Himalayan state of Sikkim the day before.
”Rescue operations have resumed this morning because we want to make sure that we haven't left anyone behind. We will scour the area properly before we call them off,” Tenzing Loden Lepcha, a police official in the northeastern state, told Reuters by telephone.
