Army rescues 1300 stuck in Nathu-la

Army rescues 1300 stuck in Nathu-la

Rescued tourists wait for government vehicles to take them back to Gangtok.


Gangtok, Dec. 27:2008

Over a thousand tourists, stuck overnight near the India-China border at Nathu-la, returned to Gangtok today, assisted by the army.

The 1,343 people had left Gangtok for a tour of Nathu-la, Tsongo lake and Baba Mandir — located 12,500-14,000ft above sea level — last morning. Tourist vehicles generally leave the Sikkim capital by 9am and reach Nathu-la, 50km away, around 11.30am. At 3pm, Nathu-la closes for tourists.

Yesterday, 68 cars of the 277 that had gone towards Nathu-la in east Sikkim returned to Gangtok but the rest got stranded as the snowfall became heavy after noon.

“Everything was okay till afternoon. Then, suddenly, it began snowing heavily. Our vehicles got stuck and we could not move,” said Gobinda Bose, a tourist from Calcutta.

As the cars waited for help, armymen posted in the border area noticed them. “We were waiting in sub-zero temperatures when army personnel came to our rescue,” Bose said.

Jawans of the third battalion of the Bihar regiment, stationed at Nathu-la, took the tourists to four army bases at Thegu, Tsongo and the 17th Mile, sources said.

Tourists feeling unwell — less oxygen and extreme cold in mountain areas causes altitude sickness — were taken to a nearby army hospital. Others were given blankets, heaters and food. Temperature in the area drops to -15 degree Celsius after sundown in winter.

“We mobilised our vehicles and took them to our locations,” said an army officer stationed at the 17th Mile transit camp, near Tsongo.

“If the armymen had not been there, God knows what would have happened to us. They gave us a new life,” said Madan Lal Meena, who had come from Rajasthan.

This morning, around 50 army vehicles took the tourists to the Fifth Mile post, where administrative officials and members of the Travel Agents Association of Sikkim were waiting with vehicles to take them back to Gangtok.