India flash flood toll nears 40 as rescuers look for dozens still 'missing'

Flood waters cracked open a dam in the Indian state of Sikkim, and then cascaded through towns in the valley below. (Photo/AFP)

The death toll in the flash floods that swept through a hilly state in India's northeast has risen close to 40 even as rescue workers continued to search for nearly 100 people officially said to be "missing", including 22 soldiers.

The flood began shortly after midnight on Wednesday, when a glacial Lhonak Lake high in the mountains overflowed after a heavy rainfall.

The waters cracked open a 6-year-old dam that was the largest in the Indian state of Sikkim, and then cascaded through towns in the Lachan Valley below.

It was the latest deadly flood to hit northeast India in a year of unusually heavy monsoon rains. Nearly 50 people died in flash floods and landslides in August in nearby Himachal Pradesh state, record rains in July killed more than 100 people over two weeks in northern India.

More than 2,000 people were rescued after Wednesday’s floods, the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority said in a statement, adding that state authorities set up 26 relief camps for more than 22,000 people impacted by the floods.

Rescue workers were still searching for nearly 100 missing people, according to the Sikkim state government.

Vinay Bhushan Pathak, the state's top bureaucrat, said that 26 people had been taken to hospitals with injuries, while nearly 3,000 tourists were stranded in the flood-hit a reas along with 700 taxi drivers.

“We are evacuating them through helicopters provided by the army and the air force,” he said.

The South Llonak Lake has been rising in recent years as a warming climate melts the glaciers that feed it, putting pressure on the dam that contains it, but it wasn't clear what triggered the breach.

Experts and varying government reports have pointed to sudden, intense rains in the area, and a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck nearby Nepal on Tuesday afternoon.

Eleven bridges in the Lachan Valley were washed away by the floodwaters, which also hit pipelines and damaged or destroyed more than 270 houses in four districts, officials said.

Several towns, including Dikchu and Rangpo in the Teesta basin, were flooded, and schools in four districts were ordered shut until Sunday, the state’s education department said.

Parts of a highway that links Sikkim, the state capital, with the rest of the country were also washed away.

The floods also hit several army camps, burying vehicles in feet of mud, according to images released by the Indian military.

One soldier who had been reported missing on Wednesday was later rescued by authorities, the army said in a statement.

The Teesta 3 hydropower project, built on the Teesta River, took nine years and cost $1.5 billion to construct. The project was capable of producing 1,200 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 1.5 million Indian homes — and began operations in 2017.

Despite risks to dams due to increasing frequency of extreme weather, the Indian federal government aims to increase India’s hydroelectric dam output by half, to 70,000 megawatts, by 2030.

Disasters caused by landslides and floods are common in India’s Himalayan region during the June-September monsoon season. Scientists say they are becoming more frequent as global warming contributes to the melting of glaciers there.

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Source: TRT