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Pakyong: Early this morning, the first sortie of the day, two MI-41s and an MI-39, successfully left Pakyong Greenfield Airport for Chaten in support of the rescue operations regarding the current crisis in North Sikkim. Nine members of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and their equipment are on board the aircraft to help further disaster relief efforts, according to a statement.

A team from the Government of Sikkim’s Power Department and Airtel’s communications services is also being flown. Using satellite-based technology and portable backup batteries, they are working to restore vital services like energy and telecommunications in places that aren’t reachable by road.

In order to close the gap between isolation and service and return normality to the lives of people impacted, a team of police officers from the communication branch are also moving towards the impacted regions with the necessary equipment, according to the statement.

Further evacuations were delayed as a result of the temporary suspension of helicopter flights from Pakyong Greenfield Airport due to the region’s ongoing severe weather. In order to help with the evacuation of visitors who were stuck in Lachen, two helicopters were sent once the weather forecast improved.

The deployment is intended to support ground-based efforts in the isolated area, where access has been severely hampered by previous natural disasters. Connecting with remote populations and enabling the prompt delivery of relief are the objectives.

In various areas of the state, landslides, mudslides, flash floods, and rockfalls have been caused by several days of intense rainfall.

The main tourist destination in the area, Lachen village, has been totally cut off. The Army contacted the 113 trapped tourists on June 4 and established a foot link to the settlement; they will shortly be rescued.

On June 3, military helicopters successfully evacuated around 30 visitors, some of whom were foreign nationals.
A military base in the Chatten region of North Sikkim was hit by the avalanche, and six people are still unaccounted for.

Nine troops have been killed in the tragedy, according to an army rescuer who is still stationed at the location of the June 1 avalanche in Chatten. He continued by saying that a huge landslide had resulted from the region’s constant rains since May 30.

Squadron Leader Aarti Sandhu (Retd.), Lieutenant Colonel Sandhu’s wife, Subedar Dharamveer, Naik Sunilal Muchahary, Sepoy Sainudheen PK, Lieutenant Colonel Pritpal Singh Sandhu, and their daughter Amayra Sandhu are among the people who are missing.