https://thewire.in/rights/sikkim-road-connectivity-still-remains-an-elusive-dream-for-dzongu-villages

Sikkim: Road Connectivity Still Remains an Elusive Dream for Dzongu Villages

 

It has been a decade since the earth caved in and Sikkim, especially North Sikkim, was affected severely in terms of infrastructural damages. Until September 2011, the 32 families of Pentong, the last village of Upper Dzongu, had access through a narrow road, just motorable, to a concrete bridge that connected Pentong with Bel and to the rest of Sikkim and the World. Dzongu is a reserved area for the indigenous Lepcha people; the reserved status is meant to protect their language, culture and way of life. Around 8000 people who live in this region practice their own unique traditional and a sustainable way of living, remaining closely connected to nature.

 

In September 2011, the only bridge that connected Bel to Pentong, as well as the famous Tholung monastery which is situated in the remote wilderness of Dzongu, was broken by the boulders that fell due to the earth quake. In the days after the September 19 earth quake, a makeshift bamboo bridge was built across the raving Tholung River.  Multiplelandslides in a couple of places enroute to to Pentong made it unmotorable and hence the people from the village are left  with no options other than trekking through the village road to Bel. This has been the reality for the past ten years. The bridge connecting Pentong with Bel was never rebuilt. The vehicles which were there in the evening before the quake on the far side of the Tholung river are  seen abandoned as the motorable road disappeared at places and the connection bridge that was never seen again.

 

A visit to Pentong village exposes us to the vulnerabilities of the people who live there. Though the villagers produce the  vegetables they need to meet  their needs (and also to sell in the markets across the Tholung), they have to go to  Mangan, the district headquarters of North Sikkim, for most of many other things necessary in their lives..  Mangan is very far in terms of accessibility. To reach Mangan, the villagers have to trek to Bel, cross the Tholung River balancing whatever they carrying for trade on their back or on their head, and from Bel only one  jeep service is available per day; and that is unpredictable too. So they trek to next village, Linjam on their way. These paths are infested with leeches during the rainy season (which is most of the year) and it is a very normal to see blood stains on their clothes. From Linjam, taxis are available, though not plenty at beck and call.

 

From Linjam they reach Mantam, the next bottleneck. A cloudburst in 2016 , which was followed by a massive landslide not only created an artificial lake in the area but also wiped out the bridge across the river, the only way to cross the river to Mantam. A temporary hanging foot over bridge was built over the river connecting 10 villages – Pentong, Sakyong, Bel, Lingam, Tingvong, Linko, Kusong, Payal, Namprik, Nung, Mantamto Mangan. This bridge also connected these villages to  the only functioning Health Centre in Lingtem.

 

One of the villagerssaid that this present hanging bridge itself was a new one; earlier, a temporary bridge was built with Bamboo and it was too low, and the water in the river used to touch their feet while crossing the river and during the monsoon it became unusable. He told us this interesting story of man who was crossing this makeshift bridge carrying a sack of rice on the back and a crate  of beer on the head. When he lost his balance he had to quickly decide which one to forgo, so he decided to give up the sack of rice.

 

There are quite impressive health centers   built in almost all the villages; but it remains unused for  want of doctors or other medical facilities. A doctor is supposed to visit the Centers once a month; but it never happens that way. Doctors visit twice a year at at best , the villagers said. The building only helped the contractors who built it. The nearest Health Centre which has a residential doctor is at Passington, Lingam which is three to five hours of trek for many villagers who live beyond Mantam. Non-existence of a motorable bridge to go to the PHC, adds to the miseries of people suffering from ailments.. This PHC at Passington too suffers from irregular supply of medicines and inadequate facilities. That’s the reason people prefer to go to the  district hospital at Mangan. The condition of this district hospital is remarkably poor as far as testing facilities, etc. are concerned. Those who have better transportation take the ailing and their families to Gangtok, the capital.

 

In Pentong village, the lady at  the Homestay where we stayed, said that she had just returned from Mangan hospital where her infant son was admitted with high fever. They had to carry the baby by foot for about 12 kilometers, daring the treacherous path and a bamboo bridge and many further kilometers in a shared taxi to get medical care for their infant. The journey that began early in the morning ended in the evening. She also told me that she is no longer interested in growing potatoes as she has to carry huge sack of potatoes to the market which is far away. Instead she began cultivating dalle,  Sikkim’s own proud contribution to the world of chilies. A  2-kilogram packet of dalle can fetch up to Rs. 1000 while she would have to lug, on foot, with a sack of potatoes to earn that money.

 

Carrying anything heavy is a difficult task in the region due to the lack of proper connectivity and accessibility. - One such almost impossible tasks is reaching cooking gas from the respective depots to homes.  They do use  firewood for cooking, but gas stoves are also used in cooking. Interestingly, there are no agencies that distribute cooking gas to these areas; the villagers have to reach Mangan which is a good 20 to 25 kilometers from these villages to collect their cooking gas while carrying the empty cylinders forreturning.

 

Normal logistics is as follows- Mangan to Lingam, people travel in a shared-taxi, then cross the hanging bridge carrying the gas cylinder on their backs, which is a balancing act, and then wait for another shared-jeep, that takes them  to a respective point and then walk  from there to their respective villages.

 

A friend who lives in this region, narrated a harrowing story of carrying the corpse of his cousin through this hanging bridge. The person who passed awayat Lingthem Health Centre and had to be carried through the 200 mt. hanging bridge on a stretcher. The bridge kept swaying and they could not hold anywhere in order to keep their balance. They thought it was a never ending act.

 

It is so unfortunate that, in the past 10 years or so the government did not take any effort to rebuild the bridge connecting Bel with the last village of the Upper Dzongu, Pentang and Tholung Monastery where the relics and the valuable Buddhist calligraphies are kept. Same is the unfortunate reality with the non-construction of a motorable bridge on Teesta River at Mantam. Almost ten villages across the river had to suffer incredibly due to this carefree attitude of the government since 2016. There were proposals to construct a new bridge but it was not materialized so far. The government did construct a bailey bridge, in 2020; but it was washed away in the next monsoon. The present pedestrian steel suspension bridge was constructed after that.

 

The colossal landslide itself, the locals attribute to the two massive hydroelectric projects in Dikchu, a stage V project (500mw) by the National Hydel Power Corporation (NHPC). It is built between Dzongu and Dichu. Due to this project, the lower part of the Dzongu suffered considerably. Landslides and river breaches became a normal phenomenon during the monsoon since the project was implemented. The Stage 3 Project at Chumthang too had huge ecological repercussions  for the whole region. Tunneling contributed to landslides in the fragile Himalayan region. A total of six projects are proposed here. Four of them were scrapped and two were suspended due to the protests. However, now the government is reviving the two suspended projects despite the protests The Dzongu region also happens to be  a biodiversity hotspot. The indigenous people of Dzongu, especially the new generation have taken over the protest, against this move.

 

This clearly indicates that the development concerns of the government of Sikkim lies elsewhere.