‘Earthquakes don’t kill people, buildings do,’ is a saying Sikkim’s native Lepchas love to quote, since the state’s mountains are known to tremble often. The truth of this statement again came to the fore in the recent earthquake. Lepchas, members of one of Sikkim’s native communities with magical mythology and folklore, have been voicing their concerns over indiscriminate approvals to hydel projects in the hill state, especially those that seek to...

-IBN   Just days after a massive earthquake hit Sikkim, the northeastern state was on Thursday hit by flash floods. The flash floods hit Lachung, located in north Sikkim district near China border, damaging at least two houses, including one Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) camp. As many as 100 people have been stranded due to the flash floods that occurred on Thursday. Meanwhile, rescue operations are on in the quake-hit areas of the state,...

An Army aerial survey on Wednesday showed that at least five villages in north Sikkim have been obliterated. More disturbingly, the survey failed to detect any people in or around the area, raising fears of the quake toll going up significantly. Authorities also said that 11 bodies were retrieved from the rubble at the hydel project near here where rescue teams fear that 40 workers are trapped in a flooded tunnel....

As I write this my city Delhi is drowning. It started raining early this morning and within a few hours the city has come to a standstill. The television is showing scenes of traffic snarled up for hours, roads waterlogged and people and vehicles sunk deep in water and muck. The meteorological department records that some 60 mm of rain has fallen in just about 6 hours; 90 mm in 24...

-PTI   Monsoon on Wednesday continued to wreak havoc as heavy rains triggered floods, landslides and claimed at least twelve lives in northern and eastern India. Eight persons were killed in Uttar Pradesh, two each in West Bengal and Meghalaya, official reports said. Heavy downpours left eight persons dead in Uttar Pradesh where major rivers are on the verge of flooding hundreds of villages. The release of flood waters from Nepal has worsened the situation...