Sikkim flash flood: Toll rises to 22, searches on for 103 missing people
army men. Of the 23 army personnel who had gone missing from Bardang area, the bodies of seven have been recovered from different areas downstream while one army man had been rescued alive earlier and the search for the remaining is continuing both in Sikkim and north Bengal through which Teesta river flows, said Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang on Friday.
Of the seven deceased army personnel, four have been identified.
They are Gopal Maddi of Binnaguri military station, Naik Bhavani Singh Chouhan of 64 Brigade, Bengdubi, Naik N G Prasad and Bimal Oraon of Madhubagan in Alipurduar, according to official records.
The bodies were recovered from the Teesta river basin and its tributaries in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts and Siliguri area of Darjeeling district in the northern part of West Bengal, which shares border with the Himalayan state.
Of the 22 deceased, 15 have been identified as men, six as women while the gender of another body could not be ascertained as it was mangled.
A total of 103 people, including the 15 jawans, remained missing after a cloudburst over Lhonak Lake in North Sikkim in the early hours of Wednesday triggered the flash flood.
So far, 2,411 people trapped due to the flash floods have been evacuated, the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority (SSDMA) said in its latest bulletin.
Altogether 7,644 people displaced by the floods have been sheltered at 26 relief camps in four affected districts.
The Sikkim CM visited flood-affected areas in Rangpo town in Pakyong district and interacted with the displaced people lodged in relief camps. He assured them of all possible assistance.
Tamang, in an interview to PTI Video, said that the state incurred damages worth thousands of crores of
