Avalanche kills 7 tourists on road to Tsomgo Lake, search on for trapped people : Of the dead four from Kolkata and two from Nepal and one missing. found,

Seven of them were feared killed and 11 injured, with the possibility of more being buried under the snow. Among the seven feared dead were one woman and a child. 

SUJAL PRADHAN, PRAKASH ADHIKARI, EOI, GANGTOK, APRIL 4, 2023 : Ignoring warnings from the police, they had gone up the Jawaharlal Nehru Road that leads to Nathu La and Tsomgo Lake to have a view of snowfall and take photos. They were playing with the snow at 13th Mile when tragedy struck on Tuesday morning. 

A sudden avalanche buried them under the snow. Seven of them were feared killed and 11 injured, with the possibility of more being buried under the snow. Among the seven feared dead were one woman and a child. 

Of the six tourists whose bodies were found, four were from Kolkata and two from Nepal. One person was still missing, the police said. The army said in a statement that the avalanche hit the arterial Jawaharlal Nehru Marg going up to the China border at around 11.30 am, trapping five to six vehicles with around 30 people under the snow. 

Till 4 p.m. seven bodies were brought out and 23 people were rescued alive, including six tourists from a deep valley, a Sikkim Government official said, quoting reports from the army. 

A senior police official dealing with checkposts said the police had warned the tourists from proceeding in view of heavy snowfall, but some of the tourists had ignored the warnings and asked the drivers of the vehicles to take them further up.

According to eyewitness accounts, the tourists were playing with snow and taking photographs around the location; with some tourists also climbing the hills above when the avalanche occurred. 

Sikkim Police Special DGP Akshay Sachdeva who reached the spot along with other officials of Gangtok District Police said: “For years tourists are coming to Tsomgo, Nathu La, but never has an avalanche occurred at 13th Mile which is at a substantially low altitude. Even we are surprised how the avalanche occurred here. Our first priority is saving as many people as possible. Even if there are more people buried under the snow, we want to rescue them alive. Keeping them alive is very important.” 

Sachdeva said the rescued people were first being taken to an MI room of the army located nearby and then being shifted to STNM Hospital, Gangtok. The condition of two of the injured tourists was stated to be critical. 

 On the casualty figure, Sachdeva said: “We do not have confirmed figures on the number of casualties in the avalanche. There were some tourists here who had climbed high up the hill while playing with snow. He said the first report of the avalanche arrived from the checkpost at 3rd Mile near Gangtok, following which the checkpost police left for the accident spot. General Reserve Engineering Force and Border Roads Organization officials and workers present in the vicinity also joined them. Soon the State Disaster Relief Force, Sikkim Armed Police and forest officials and drivers joined them to help in the rescue operations. 

On being asked why tourist permits were issued despite the prevailing bad weather conditions, a senior Sikkim Police official said: “Today the passes for the restricted area of Tsomgo was only till the 15th Mile and not to Tsomgo Lake, citing bad weather conditions. 

Normally people tend to go higher up, but the police issue the passes, keeping the safety in mind and if the roads are clear. The 15th Mile is comparatively safe, but the police are always under pressure from the tourists to allow them to go higher up towards Nathu La. Sikkim being a tourism destination, the tourists, when they come, want to see the snow. ”

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Centre was closely monitoring the situation. Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang condoled the deaths and prayed for the speedy recovery of those injured. In March this year, it snowed unusually heavily in the higher altitudes of Sikkim. 

The BRO rescued more than 10,000tourists and 3,000 vehicles stranded in tourist destinations in the high altitudes of east Sikkim and north Sikkim in the whole month.