The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Tuesday evacuated 176 survivors, including 16 foreign nationals from the flood-hit Sikkim.According to an official statement, the IAF also air-landed 9400 kg of relief material to the northeastern state.In addition to this, Mi-17 V5, CH-47 Chinooks and Cheetah helicopters have been deployed by IAF as a part of the rescue operations in the flood-hit Sikkim to evacuate those stranded in the remote areas. IAF has been dropping the essential supplies to the areas that have been-cut off after flood due to cloud burst.Braving the inclement weather, the #IAF continued its HADR missions in the state of Sikkim on 10 Oct 23. Earlier in the day, the Mi-17 V5 & Chinook Heptrs operating from various locations in the State, undertook 25 sorties transporting 203 stranded tourists to safer locations.1/3 pic.twitter.com/bWF0XPEpql— Eastern Air Command IAF (@EAC_IAF) October 10, 2023The northeastern state which has suffered significant disruptions due to the recent flash floods that inflicted damage on footbridges, roads, and other infrastructure.A total of 523 tourists were left stranded in the Lachen village out of which, two suffered casualties, following the Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) in South Lhonak Lake creating havoc across the Teesta basin in Sikkim and North Bengal.“The situation in Lachen is too bad. Two people suffered casualties, the rest are safe…Due to the disconnectivity of the road, we cant travel…I would like to tell the tourists and their relatives to not worry since as per the state and central governments directions, most of them have been airlifted with the help of the army”, said Samdup Lepcha, MLA, Lachen (Mangan) constituency.
