Relief trucks, personnel make their way to Sikkim quake victims
Fallen trees, downed power lines and rockfalls - the road to India's deadliest earthquake in a decade was strewn with the evidence of the tremor's destructive power.
Sunday's powerful 6.8 Himalayan quake has now claimed at least 63 lives across the region - including 42 in Sikkim.
Rescue and relief teams who flew in to the nearest airport, Bagdogra, faced a perilous and gruelling 125 kilometre (80-mile) drive along the Siliguri highway to Gangtok, the state capital of Sikkim and headquarters of the quake emergency operations.
Every few kilometres, the convoys of vehicles were forced to stop and, aided by soldiers and villagers, clear the road ahead, as torrential monsoon rains threatened to trigger further landslides.
'The roads are open now'
The road from Bagdogra to the Sikkim capital Gangtok could be restored only by late afternoon.
"The road is open. Power has been restored in Gangtok," the home secretary said.
But it's a long way to recovery.
"It's death and destruction in Sikkim now with people still in a state of shock. Most houses in Gangtok have suffered wide cracks, even gaping cracks seen on the main roads," said Arun Gurung, a businessman in Gangtok.
Stretches of the route were lined by locals and townspeople who had evacuated their homes and were too scared to return because of multiple aftershocks that followed.
"We just had a landslide right here," said village shopkeeper Karma Mantor. "We are still in a state of panic. Nobody knows what is really happening."
Boulders smash rescue vehicles
The two-lane state highway is a narrow squeeze at any time, but negotiating stretches hit by rockfalls was particularly hair-raising, with only inches to spare as vehicles skirted a sharp drop on one side.
It was an especially tight fit for trucks carrying rescue teams and relief equipment flown in from New Delhi.
With road-clearing operations starting in full force on Monday morning, the line of vehicles edging their way up to Gangtok numbered more than 100.
About 6,200 personnel from the army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) did manage to fan out to victims. More than 400 people, including 26 tourists, were rescued by security personnel, despite rough weather and bad terrain.
Sikkim was cut off from the rest of the country, with the national highway 31-A blocked in at least eight places, for much of the day. Ten teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), including rescue and medical officers, and a team of doctors waited for hours to reach quake-affected areas.
"I saw at least six vehicles damaged, hit by landslides with boulders smashing the vehicles on the highway," said Ravi Lepcha, a teacher in Gangtok.
Death toll could be higher
Officials in the Himalayan state fear the death toll could rise.
"The casualty figure might go up as we are still getting reports of deaths and injuries from remote areas. Telecommunication facilities are down and hence information is hard to come by from the interior areas," said Sikkim information minister, C.B. Karki.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has sanctioned Rs.2 lakh each for the next of kin of those killed in India.
Post new comment