NEW DELHI: On Friday, nearly 300 families were evacuated from Sikkim’s Mangan district after several buildings collapsed in the border region. The village’s land is gradually subsiding towards the Teesta River, raising concerns and fear among local residents.
Nim Tshering Lepcha, a victim and a Local Representative of the Naga Village, urged the Indian government for immediate attention. “Relocation of the affected people is necessary at the moment as well as the restoration of the border road.
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,” Lepcha said. He added that the situation is not only a concern for the general public but also a threat to national security.
The Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) that caused the disaster in Sikkim last year serves as a warning of the significant threat 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 last year, an international team of scientists led by Newcastle University in the UK conducted the first global assessment of areas at risk from Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (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 grows with increasing proximity to a glacial lake.
