PHOTOS: Sikkim Rescue Operations by Indian Army

The clear skies on bright and sunny tuesday saw Army resume helicopter sorties between North Sikkim and Gangtok,Bagdogra. The Army also plans to use Pakyong Airport for bigger and heavier helicopter operations.The Indian Army has won hearts of people across Sikkim for its sheer dedication and determination to reach out and help in every way possible to Quake hit victims .

NIMHANS to provide psycho-social care to Sikkimquake Victims

Gangtok: The Government of Sikkim has disbursed Rs 14.21 crore as relief among quake-hit people in Sikkim while experts from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, were sent to provide psycho-social care to the people affected by the natural calamity.

A five-member team comprising psychiatrists from the Department of Psychiatric Social Work, NIMHANS, visited the quake site on Sunday evening. The Union Health Ministry had requested the doctors to visit the site and take stock of the situation there. “Depending on the response from the locals there, subsequent action will be taken,” said Dr Satish Chandra, Director, NIMHANS.

Home Ministry officials said though most of the roads blocked following landslides have been reopened, some were still blocked as Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and Army engineers were working for their restoration.

“A total of `14.21 crore has been disbursed as relief by the state government till date,” officials said. Due to incessant rains, landslides have occurred in Dzongu. No casualty has been reported but relief work is being carried out by the National Disaster Response Force, state police and NGOs.

However, relief activities, including airlifting of victims, are not being carried out in Chugthang, Lachen and Lachung due to heavy rains. Approximately 11,000 food packets have been air dropped so far in the northern part of the North District. However, the airdropping of food packets on Monday was stalled due to inclement weather.

Helicopter sorties with relief to earthquake-affected areas due to incessant rain

Gangtok: Helicopter sorties with relief to earthquake-affected areas which resumed Sunday after a two-day gap were again suspended due to incessant rain on Monday.

A senior Army official said that nine Army helicopters were engaged yesterday in the relief operation dropping ration and evacuating stranded people from different parts of North Sikkim. He said that on the state’s request, the Army has released 3,000 litres of kerosene to Chungthang and 2,000 litres of kerosene to Lachung.

The Army has also opened seven relief camps at Chungthang where most people living in villages surrounding the sub-divisional town have arrived. Prem Subba, who came down from Thangu, which is beyond Lachen, said most of the residents have abandoned their houses fearing they might crumble anytime after suffering structural damage in the earthquake.

Sonam, also from Thangu, said most people were sleeping in tents at the camps.

Meena Rai and her entire family of five are also residing in the relief camp opened at the Gurudwara having come down from a nearby village.

Chungthang has also experienced a large influx of labourers who are not just employed with the hydel project here, but also those from road and other construction projects further north.

They have been trekking down to Chungthang for the last couple of days and are awaiting helicopter evacuation. Despite many labourers having been evacuated, there are still around 400 of them stranded there, still desperately trying to get a ride back home in one of the choppers.

There has been a mass exodus of labourers also from places above Chungthang, as far north as Dombang where a road construction company is engaged in the construction of a road from Dombang to Gora La.

Balwant Rai and Sushil Singh, both from Benaras, said that the military and labour camp up there had been totally destroyed. However, 200-odd labourers survived and managed to escape and take a three-day trek down to Chungthang. In many ways the Ground Zero of the devastating earthquake, Chungthang is by far the worst affected town which has suffered a trail of devastation and destruction left by the earthquakes.

As many as 13 deaths have taken place there alone, many are missing and almost all houses and structures have been damaged. With most structures rendered unsafe and residents still insecure about returning to even houses which have suffered only minor damage, most are still sleeping in the camps and open spaces, a week since the calamity.

The Chungthang SDM office has conducted a preliminary investigation of the damages in and around Chungthang though there has not been enough time for a detailed examination yet.

The preliminary report suggests that 90 houses in Chungthang have been totally damaged. The town has about 120 households. Of the 90 totally damaged houses, 25 are stated to be uninhabitable.

Though there is death and destruction everywhere, the sub-divisional office is functioning thanks to 12 sets of WLL phones and one satellite phone provided by the BSNL.

BDO Samdup Bhutia said, “our priority was to evacuate the injured and tourists followed by women and children and finally the elderly.”

A total of seven relief camps have been set up here by the administration which are managed with the help of local people.

A task force has also been set up comprising local panchayat members, district officials, officials from private companies, local people, the Army as well as other agencies aiding the relief and rehabilitation efforts

Army Chief General VK Singh hails Armymen in Sikkim relief and rescue operations

Jaipur, Sep 24 : Army Chief General VK Singh today hailed relief and rescue operations being undertaken by the Army in affected areas of Sikkim.

Speaking at a function here this afternoon, General Singh said "About 5,000 to 6,000 Armymen have been working in the quake-ravaged difficult terrains in the bordering state of Sikkim, reaching out to every possible needy victims, serving them with utmost dedication and even providing their own ration and other materials to them".

The Army was dedicated to serve and secure the nation, he added.
Gen Singh reached here yesterday on a two-day official visit and took part in a number of programmes during his sojourn in the Pink City.

--UNI

Earthquakes unlikely in Sikkim for next few years: IIT expert

Sikkim is unlikely to face any large earthquake over the next couple of years as vast energy has been released through last Sunday's tremors and aftershocks, says SK Nath, senior professor of geology and geophysics, IIT-Kharagpur.

Although the recent quake left scores dead and devastated vast areas in north Sikkim, the leading geologist says the damage would have been worse had its full fury been felt in the state's more populous south, where no building code is followed.

"Though many people have died in Sikkim, I must say that Sikkim was lucky this time as the epicentre of the earthquake was the Sikkim-Nepal border," he said.

"That is why the northern part faced the wrath and south Sikkim did not face much problem," said Nath, who has been working extensively on the microzonation and seismicity of the Sikkim region since 1995.

"It was quite a large earthquake and it also released a few aftershocks," said Nath. "So I can say that for at least the next couple of years there will be no such earthquake in Sikkim."

He rubbished reports of Mangan in the north district being the epicentre of the earthquake.

"I do not know from where reports are coming that Mangan is the epicentre. It is in the middle of Sikkim. Had Mangan been the epicentre, the whole of Bhutan and North Bengal up to Siliguri would have been in ruins," Nath told IANS in an interview.

Nath, who has been teaching in IIT-Kharagpur since 1988, said the main reason for earthquakes in India is the Indian plate going under the Eurasian plate.

"The Indian plate is still going under the Eurasian plate. It is going under at a rate 46 millimetres per year," said Nath.

Nath, the principal investigator on the project of Department of Earth Sciences Microzonation of Sikkim Region, submitted a report in 2006 regarding what kind of quake-proof buildings should come up in the hill state.

According to Nath, Sikkim is divided into two seismic zones: North Sikkim falls under seismic zone 4 and South Sikkim, which includes areas of Gangtok and Singtham, falls under seismic zone 5.

Seismic Microzonation is a process by which an area is divided into zones -- in accordance with the character of the area such as ground shaking, susceptibility, rock fall hazard and earthquake-related flooding.

"If you go to south Sikkim, which falls in Zone 5, it has a lot of two lean buildings side by side, with very little gap between them. No building code is followed there," said Nath, who received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in 2002.

"It is true that Sikkim's mainstay is tourism and Gangtok its main attraction. But there should be a proper procedure for construction of buildings," said Nath.

North Sikkim after earthquake photos

AFTER EARTHQUAKE PHOTOS OF NORTH SIKKIM

Women IAF pilots shine in Sikkim relief and rescue operations

Bagdogra, Sep 24 (IANS) Women pilots of the Indian Air Force (IAF) have been in the thick of action the past week, carrying out relief and rescue operations in earthquake-hit Sikkim from this air base in north Bengal.

Three of the 30-odd pilots from the 142 Helicopter Unit are putting in long hours to conduct sorties from ‘sunrise to sunset’ to reach supplies and carry out evacuation from the remotest corners of north Sikkm, the epicentre of Sunday’s 6.8-magnitude earthquake.

The air base is the centre of all IAF relief operations for the neighbouring state.

Flying the Cheetah and Chetak choppers of the IAF, the women pilots have matched their skills with their men colleagues and have ‘captained’ their respective choppers during the relief operations in some of the most inhospitable terrains after the tremor. Many inhabited areas are still cut off from the rest of the country due to landslides, and have been kept on life-support through air bridges.

Flight-Lieutenant Arunima Vidhate, a 26-year-old pilot who has clocked in over 350 hours of flying the Cheetahs and Chetaks, said her first sortie middle of last week was for carrying out a recce of the quake-hit areas to provide valuable inputs to the rescuers to reach the remote corners.

She also guided relief workers to reach the landslide spots to clear the roads for rescuers to move in.

Vidhate, who has been in the air force for four years now, is a captain of her flying machine.

So is 25-year-old Poornima Ranade, who too has clocked in 250 hours on the Cheetahs and Chetaks.

‘We carry out sorties from sunrise to sunset. I have done some sorties to provide food supplies to tiny villages in remote corners of north Sikkim,’ says Ranade.

‘The joy you see in the eyes of the people and relief on their face when we reach them with supplies and medicines, it brings joy to me to. They are happy to see us, after remaining cut off and hopeless for hours,’ chips in Vidhate.

‘In fact, just hearing the sound of our rotors, the people on the ground gain in faith that there are people to take care of them in their worst times,’ she adds.

Ask her if the stranded people are surprised to see women piloting choppers coming to their rescue, Vidhate quickly responds: ‘Not anymore. People are now used to seeing women pilot airplanes and choppers. In fact, I have seniors who have done this for a decade now.’

100 Army Special Forces troops deployed in Sikkim

Gangtok:To carry out relief operations in areas rendered inaccessible due to the powerful earthquake that struck the Himalayan region last week, the Indian Army has deployed over 100 troops of its Special Forces in Sikkim.

Indian Army's Para-Special Forces deployed in nearby locations were brought here and then flown to totally cut off regions in North Sikkim by Mi-17 choppers, Indian Air Force (IAF) officials said.

Over four sorties with 22 SF troops each were flown to Chungthang and from there they were sent to forward locations.

The SF troops are carrying with them special equipment including ropes and other climbing gear which can be used to reach inaccessible places in mountains and help in rescuing stranded civilians and military personnel.

The troops are also carrying stretchers to evacuate stranded people.

The SF men have been divided in various small teams to conduct rescue operations in targeted areas and are also assisting in clearing important roads in the quake-hit areas of Sikkim.

The SF troops have been positioned in areas where the 112 brigade of the Indian Army is deployed. This Brigade which looks after the Indian border with China has been cut off from roads since the earthquake struck the region on September 18.

The army SF troops have been trained to carry out special operations in both conventional and non-conventional warfare.

VISUALS: Trapped inmates rescued from Collapsed Gangtok Buildings near Vajra Cinema Hall

Two buildings collapse in Gangtok

GANGTOK, 24 Sept: Following the massive earthquake of 18 September which has damaged thousands of buildings statewide, it was only a matter of time before news poured in of collapsing buildings. Late this evening, a five-storied building belonging to the Secretary, Sports & Youth Affairs Department, near the Vajra Cinema hall on the North Sikkim Highway collapsed trapping three people inside. Miraculously, all three survived after rescue personnel comprising of civilians, the army and NDRF pulled them out of the debris in time. Only the top two floors could be seen above the road while the other 3 stories had sunk.

Trapped in the collapsed building were a driver, a carpenter and his helper. They were trapped in the lower stories which had sunk. After about half an hour of rescue efforts, they were evacuated and rushed to the hospital in a waiting ambulance.
The building also housed the offices of the United Sikkim Football Club a team of which was due to leave for Kolkata tomorrow and an ATM of Axis Bank. The building behind upon which the building has collapsed, houses a school which is also now precariously positioned.
Fortunately no one was in the building at the time of the collapse, the structure having been evacuated earlier.
But that is not the only building which has collapsed or damaged. The five storied building is believed to have collapsed after the building standing adjacent to it, belonging to former minister, Sonam Choda Lepcha, sank, taking the other building along with it.
A couple of vehicles were also damaged when the ground on which they were parked, in front of the building, also sunk with the structure. One of the vehicles was totally crushed.
The building before Sonam Choda Lepcha’s building has also tilted slightly and is also on the verge of collapse.
Fortunately these buildings had been evacuated. In fact the building belonging to the late Minister had a guest house of a central government agency which had been evacuated on yesterday, on 22 September.
While no one was killed or seriously injured in this mishap, it has brought a renewed anxiety and nervousness among the people. In fact many are now sleeping outdoors inspite of the rain. It has also awakened the state administration to the possibility of having to examine and verify the safety of buildings in the state.
(NowDailY)

Sunday's killer earthquake photos

Quake toll rises to 87,relief team reaches epicentre in Sikkim

The rescue workers have been racing against time as they battle landslides and rains in Sikkim and hilly regions of West Bengal to save the still trapped victims of Sunday's earthquake that has claimed 87 lives in the country so far.
Authorities feared that the toll could go up further as they struggled to reach people trapped under debris.
The death toll in Sikkim alone stood at 72, with the northern part of the state recording maximum casualties. The 6.8 magnitude quake has left behind badly damaged roads and buildings and disrupted communication lines.

A series of aftershocks rattled survivors and spread panic. Medical teams reached the epicentre, Mangan, using choppers on Tuesday.

Rescue operations remained the biggest challenge as rain and landslides were severely hampering the efforts. Bad weather was not allowing helicopters to land in the affected areas and the Indian Air Force (IAF) planes were unable to air-drop food packets.

The Board Road Organisation (BRO) engineers, meanwhile, managed to open National Highway 31A on Monday, while the highway from Darjeeling to Nathu La was expected to be cleared on Tuesday.
Over 5,000 army soldiers and 700 from Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel have been engaged in rescue and relief operation with the help of nine helicopters.

The army and the ITBP were also operating relief camps to house the survivors.

The Centre and the state government have announced compensation of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively for the next of kin of those killed in the quake.