Teesta rises after heavy rain

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, 18 Jun 2019, Gangtok: The water level of the Teesta rose alarmingly on Monday afternoon in North Sikkim and also landslips were reported in some places of the district following a heavy rainfall in the region.

The Sikkim administration issued an alert to residents living alongside the Teesta in the low lying areas, including Singtam and Rangpo in East Sikkim but water level receded considerably in the evening.

Sources said there were no reports of loss of life and property from any part of the state but about 60 tourist vehicles were stranded in North Sikkim because of the landslides.

Sikkim chief minister P. S. Golay, who is in Delhi, has asked the district administration to clear the roads at the earliest. 

"He (Golay) has directed the authorities to extend all possible help to the tourists and the local people and asked the administration to clear the roads at the earliest," 

The rising Teesta at Singtam in Sikkim on Monday  said an official. According to sources, the Teesta Urja Ltd., which operates the Teesta State III hydroelectric project, released around 600 cumecs of water from its Chungthang dam at 12.30pm, an hour after the downpour. The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) is also understood to have released water from its Teesta Stage V hydro- electric project dam located at Dikchu, but the exact volume could not be ascertained.

The North district administration suggested that the heavy rain was a result of cloud burst.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department, cloudburst causes about 10 centimetre rain in a span of an hour. "Chungthang recorded five centimeter rain on Sun- day," said G. N. Raha, head of the Gangtok office of the IMD.

Praful Rao, the president of Save The Hills, a Kalimpongbased NGO, doubted if a cloud burst had indeed occurred over North Sikkim. "Heavy rain occur over the mountains when you have an active weather system like say Cyclone Aila, and when there is a monsoon trough, which is a band of low pressure which moves close to the foothills. So, there was neither a major system yesterday or today nor has the monsoon trough shifted to the foothills," he said.

Rao wondered why the power companies released so much of water when the rainfall was not very heavy.

"Fifty millimeter of rainfall is not a cloudburst... How come the dams released so much of water? This is exactly what happened in Kerala," he said refereeing to last year's floods that caused devastation in the southern state.