India flood toll reaches 56, army issues warning about errant bombs
As of Saturday, there have been at least 56 confirmed fatalities due to floods in India’s northeast. The army has warned that armaments that were carried away by the torrential rains constitute a threat to public safety.
Following the abrupt rupture of a high-altitude glacier lake on Wednesday, violent floods swept over the state of Sikkim.
Climate scientists caution that as global temperatures increase and the ice melts, similar calamities will become a greater threat throughout the Himalayas.
Anilraj Rai, the state’s relief commissioner, told AFP over the phone that “26 bodies have so far been found in Sikkim.”
K. Umesh Ganpat, superintendent of the Jalpaiguri district police, told AFP that search and rescue teams in the adjacent West Bengal state have located thirty more bodies in the Teesta river basin.
He continued, “The river extends up to 86 kilometres.” “The search effort is ongoing.”
Seven Indian army soldiers who were stationed in Sikkim, which is located on India’s remote border with Nepal and China and has a sizable military presence, are among the fatalities.
Among the more than 100 people still missing are sixteen military. In a statement, India’s defence ministry said that “firearms and explosives” from military bases had been carried away by the rains.
According to the ministry, the army has “established lookout teams all along the river” to gather loose ordnance.
A mortar shell that detonated while moving through floodwaters in West Bengal on Friday caused two deaths and four injuries.
Many of the state’s roads, bridges, and telephone lines have been destroyed, making evacuations and attempts to contact the thousands of people cut off from the rest of the country more difficult.
According to the most recent Sikkim government bulletin, the floods had damaged more than 1,200 homes.
According to the report, more than 2,400 individuals have been saved, and close to 7,000 others are finding refuge at impromptu relief camps put up in classrooms, government buildings, and guesthouses.
