Sikkim: Landslide in Gangtok's Sokpay, Dikchu-Rakdong Road damaged

A landslide hit Sikkims Sokpay village in Gangtok in the wee hours of Sunday causing massive damage to the National Highway along the DikchuRakdong RoadAs per information the four houses were completely damaged and 18 families were affected due to the landslide The local administration has evacuated around 1520 families living around the two damaged housesAs many as four livestock were lost in the landslide However no casualties were reportedGangtok District Magistrate Tushar Nikhare and other concerned officials from Gangtok District surveyed the site area on Sunday afternoonTwo house owners whose houses were completely damaged were provided with a relief of Rs 130000 a cow owner was given Rs 40500 and a tenant whose shop was damaged was provided Rs 25000 informed the officialAccording to a local resident of Sokpay village Mohan Neopaney as many as 1520 houses have been affected Most importantly everyone here has lost electricity and water connections We are hopeful of the government provide us with relief This year the landslides were very dangerous said a localA nearby Animal Husbandry office was also damaged by the slide which according to a Neopaney was inaugurated in 2022Also Read 1997 killed 1854901 hectares crops damaged in disasters in 202223 MoS Nityanand Rai in Lok SabhaThe landslide occured around 230 am to 3 am A nearby Lepcha resident lost 34 pigs with some furniture at his home He had to be evacuated from what remained of his home They are poor and may not be able to afford to rent a property Another resident Pushpalal Neopaney lost a cow They are facing a lot of hardships Neopaney addedLast night the slide occured also at 11 pm which we didnt come to know Every time there is a slide we go downhill but the slide at 2 am we came to know when a big boulder fell close to our home It didnt fall on the roadside The slide at 3 am was so big that our home started vibrating and we shifted to a cave nearby The cave itself started vibrating and we thought we are going to die said Manju SharmaAccording to local residents many surveys have been conducted by the officials in the past and they suggested relocating to a safer areaIn the past many surveys have been conducted of the area There were talks of shifting the residents from the area but nothing as such ever happened This happened in 2016 Manju SharmaShop owner Sunita Subba near Selfie Dara a tourist spot in the village lost her entire shop to the landslideNarrating the local peoples plight Sunita Subba said Every monsoon we have to leave our house and stay in neighbours homes The authorities tell us that we will be shifted but even after shifting where would we go We do not have land anywhere else and we cannot stay in anyone elses place We feel that the government can give us land set up a colony and shift us there We do not wish to be evacuated We work here our children study hereWe did evacuate for 45 months at someones residence But since it was our livelihood we came back and stayed again she addedMeanwhile the local administration is assessing the loss caused due to the landslideGangtok Zilla Adhyaksha Balaram Adhikari said How the landslide occured will be surveyed by the Mines and Geology Department It was a dry slide but there is an NHPC dam at the base of the hill and at the top of the hill there is a powerline tower According to the local people the dam is the reason for landslides But we cannot ascertainThe highway connects to North Sikkim and now with the slide an alternative road from nearby Samdong village is commutable Public Health Engineering officials have surveyed the damage and have initiated actions to open the road connectivity The clearance could take 23 days the size of boulders are very big but for people to walk a pathway will be carved from the slide he addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever