Parts of Sikkim marooned, 9 die in Assam

The headquarters of Sikkim’s North district on Monday remained cut off from the rest of the state as rescue teams struggled to access remote areas as the toll in floods rose to nine in Assam and four in Arunachal Pradesh.

With landslides blocking roads, rescue teams comprising personnel of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Army, Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and state government personnel were finding it difficult to reach remote areas where 21 ITBP and BRO personnel were killed and eight were missing in flash flood and landslides on Saturday, official sources said. Bad weather was also hindering helicopters from making sorties in the area; they were trying to drop essential commodities in Chungthang.

A helicopter carrying Chief Secretary Karma Gyatso also could not land due to bad weather. In Assam, the flood situation worsened with the Brahmaputra and its tributaries continuing to rise leaving nine persons dead and rendering 10 lakh people homeless in 16 districts, official sources said.

Three children were drowned in a boat mishap at Makum near Sadiya in Tinsukia district on Sunday night while 42 others were rescued, official sources said. The worst affected districts of Assam were Baksa, Barpeta, Darrang, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Jorhat, Kamrup, Lakhimpur, Morigaon, Nagaon, Nalbari etc.