NEW DELHI: Nearly 300 families were evacuated in Sikkim’s Mangan district after several buildings collapsed in the border region, according to PTI reports on Friday. The land in the village is gradually subsiding towards the Teesta River, raising significant concerns among local residents.
Nim Tshering Lepcha, a local representative from Naga Village and one of the affected residents, urged the Indian government for immediate intervention. “Relocation of the affected people is necessary at the moment as well as the restoration of the border road,” Lepcha stated. He emphasized the urgency by noting, “It has been 11 months since the glacial lake outburst flood in 2023, and there’s no improvement. The Government of India should also take up this matter seriously as this is a border road. It does not only concern the general public but also poses a threat to national security.”
The Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) that caused the disaster in Sikkim last year serves as a stark reminder of the significant threats such events pose to the three million Indians living in vulnerable regions across the six Himalayan states and UTs: Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh.
In February of last year, an international team of scientists led by Newcastle University in the UK conducted the first global assessment of areas at risk from GLOFs. Their study, published in the journal Nature Communications, highlighted that India and Pakistan account for one-third of the global population exposed to GLOFs. The research also noted that the risk to populations increases with closer proximity to a glacial lake.
