Around 600 tourists, including several foreigners, who were stranded at various places in northern Sikkim since October 4 because of the Teesta floods were evacuated on Monday.

Most of them were airlifted from places such as Lachen, Lachung, Thangu and Chungthang, while about 150 tourists walked across a temporary log bridge installed in Chungthang, along with 500-odd local people.

Around 81 migrant workers stranded in north Sikkim too have been rescued from locations such as Regu, Toong and Chungthang and brought to Siliguri on Sikkim Nationalised Transport buses.

Road links with Chungthang, which falls on the way to Lachen and Lachung, had snapped completely, causing around 1,700 tourists to be stranded in these areas of Mangan district, army sources said.

A senior Sikkim government official said the evacuation efforts would resume on Tuesday.

“After the disaster, plans were immediately drawn up with the air force and the army to evacuate, by helicopter, the tourists as well as local people who needed medical treatment,” the official said.

“However, bad weather in the north prevented the choppers from flying to
these places during the past four days. Today, as the weather improved, the
choppers conducted multiple sorties and rescued the tourists.”

On Monday, cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba and other senior officials from various central ministries and the defence forces held a virtual meeting with Sikkim chief secretary V.B. Pathak and other state officials.

After Pathak told the meeting about the evacuation of tourists from northern Sikkim, Gauba asked for the number of helicopter sorties to be increased to speed up the evacuation, a source said.

The army has been helping the tourists since the disaster hit on Wednesday, providing food, shelter and medical aid and making arrangements for them to communicate with their families.

On Monday, as day broke, Chinook and Mi-17 helicopters of the air force flew to affected areas with essential commodities from Mangan and Pakyong, and brought back stranded tourists on the return journey.

Seven sorties were made to Lachen -- six by army choppers and one by a helicopter hired by Sikkim Urja Limited --- sources said. Around 100 people, including 16 international tourists, were evacuated from the location.

Some 354 tourists, including 13 from Bangladesh, were evacuated from Lachung, government sources said. They were taken to Pakyong airport.

“We went to Lachung on October 3 and disaster struck the next day. We are thankful to the Indian army for the support and also to the Sikkim government. Finally, we can go home,” a member of the team from Bangladesh said.

After the flash flood, the first batch of tourists was rescued from Mangan district on Sunday. A group of 11 tourists, including four Thai nationals, were guided across a bamboo bridge.