Himalayan lake floods kill 14 and more than 100 missing in India

NEW DELHI/KOLKATA (Reuters) – At least 14 people died and 102 were missing on Thursday after heavy rain caused a glacial Himalayan lake in northeast India to overflow, the worst disaster of its kind in the region. in more than five years. decades.

Lake Lhonak in Sikkim state overflowed on Wednesday, causing major flooding that authorities said had affected the lives of 22,000 people. It is the latest deadly weather event in the mountains of South Asia attributed to climate change.

The meteorological department said Sikkim received 101 mm (4 inches) of rain in the first five days of October, more than double normal levels, causing floods worse than those of October 1968, in which an estimated 1,000 people died. .

The department has forecast heavy rain for the next three days in parts of Sikkim and neighboring states.

The latest flooding was exacerbated by water released by the state-owned NHPC’s Teesta V dam, local officials said. Four of the dam’s gates had been washed away and it was unclear why they had not been opened in time, a government source told Reuters.

As of early Thursday, the state disaster management agency said 26 people had been injured and 102 were missing, 22 of whom were army personnel. Eleven bridges were washed away, hampering rescue operations, which were already affected by heavy rains.

Authorities in neighboring Bangladesh were on alert and an official from the state water development board warned that five districts in the northern part of the country could be inundated with a rise in the level of the Teesta River, which enters Bangladesh downstream from Sikkim. .

“Efforts are continuing to unearth the vehicles submerged under sleet at Burdang near Singtam. The search for the missing persons is now focusing on the downstream areas of the Teesta river,” an Indian defense spokesperson said.

FUEL SHORT, FOOD AVAILABLE

Video footage from the ANI news agency, in which Reuters has a minority stake, showed floods reaching built-up areas where several houses collapsed. Army bases and other facilities were damaged and vehicles were submerged.

Satellite images showed that almost two-thirds of the lake appears to have been drained.

Sikkim, a small state of about 650,000 people located in the mountains between Nepal, Bhutan and China, was cut off from Siliguri in the neighboring state of West Bengal when the main road collapsed.

State lawmaker GT Dhungel told Reuters that gasoline and diesel had become scarce in the state capital, Gangtok, but food was available.

A downpour on Wednesday dropped a huge amount of rain for a short period on Lake Lhonak, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Gangtok, near the border with China, causing flash flooding in the Teesta Valley.

A 2020 report from India’s National Disaster Management Agency said glacial lakes are rising and pose a potentially big risk to infrastructure and life downstream as glaciers in the Himalayas are melting due to change. climate.

“Sadly, this is the latest in a series of deadly flash floods that rebounded across the Hindu Kush-Himalaya region this monsoon, bringing vividly to life the reality of this region’s extreme vulnerability to climate change,” said Pema Gyamtsho, director general manager of the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, based in Nepal.

Other mountainous areas of India, as well as parts of neighboring Pakistan and Nepal, have been hit by torrential rains, floods and landslides in recent months, killing dozens of people.

A report by scientists at India’s National Remote Sensing Center a decade ago had warned that the chances of the lake overflowing were “very high” at 42%.

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