News
| Sikkim International Rhododendron Festival |
| Sikkim is the home of Rhododendrons and the Government of Sikkim is hosting three weeks long Rhododendron Festival from 25th April to 14th May 2010. The main venue will be at Singba Rhododendron Sanctuary in Yumthang Valley in North Sikkim- spread over 43 sq. km. of rhododendron forests. The Sanctuary was established some 20 years back and it is the repository of around 26 large leaved species of which R. hodgsonii, R. falconeri, R. thomsonii, R. campylocarpum, R. campanulatum, R. decipiens, R. cinnabarinum, R. wightii, R. niveum, R. sikkimense and many others will be at their best. The Rhododendron Festival, first of its kind in the Indian Himalayas, will showcase the importance of this spectacular genus in the plant kingdom both from tourism and conservation standpoint.
The venue, 5 hours drive from Gangtok, is well connected by motor able road and modest accommodation is available. Short botanical tours in the interior with base at Lachung and Lachen could also be organized with prior arrangement. It is a unique opportunity to see the rhododendrons flowers at their best and mingle with the fun-loving people of Lachung and experience their way of life – their music, songs & dance, cuisines in the accompaniment of rhododendrons all around. |
| Mamata inaugurates Rangpo rail link |
| The Statesman:RANGPO: A rail locomotive chugging through the difficult terrain and steep incline in northeast’s Sikkim is not going to stay a reverie anymore.
Thanks to the fast forward initiative of the Union railway minister Miss Mamata Banerjee, the Vice-President Mr Hamid Ansari today laid the foundation stone for the much-awaited Sevoke-Rangpo Broad Gauge rail route at Rangpo in East Sikkim. The project, which is to connect West Bengal with Sikkim, attains special significance as Sikkim provides for India´s border with its sweet-sour neighbour, the Communist republic of China. Thus, on materialisation, this rail route would not only benefit the common people of Sikkim, but would also augment India´s defence capabilities in the region. Perhaps keeping this mind, Sikkim chief minister Mr Pawan Kumar Chamling and Governor Mr Balmiki Prasad Singh, who too were present at the foundation stone laying ceremony at Rangpo, urged the Railway minister to extend this rail link upto the Nathula Pass that connects India to China in Sikkim. Without making any direct reference to this, the Railway minister in her speech said that linking Mirik in Darjeeling district to the Sikkim capital Gangtok was her dream. “This is a long cherished dream. For the first time after 1950, the Indian Railway has taken up initiative to lay rail tracks upto Rangpoo in Sikkim and we would do more for the region in future,” Miss Banerjee said while speaking at the Rangpoo ceremony this morning. Accompanied by the Union shipping minister (state) Mr Mukul Roy, the Railway minister late laid another foundation stone for the same Sevoke - Rangpoo rail route at Sevoke in Darjeeling district. “I would believe in making blank promises. The aspirations of the people must be looked into for the sake of peace and development...From Terai to Dooras, Sikkim to Darjeeling all of us must stay together and united,” she said at Sevoke. The total length of the proposed Sevoke -Rangpoo rail route is around 52 km and would cost the Indian Railway a whopping Rs 1339.48 crore. As the Railway minister, the project would be completed by 2014. To negotiate with the difficult terrain, the rail route would progress through a total of 13 tunnels, adding up 12,118 metre in length. The longest tunnel on the route would be 1814 metre. Besides this, 100 bridges, of which 37 are big bridges, would also be constructed as part of the rail project. The rail route will have four stations at Riang, Geilkhola, Teesta Bazar and Melli. The maximum speed limit on the route is proposed at 65 km/ hour. |
| West Sikkim avalanche kills two mountaineers |
| Sikkim Express:Gangtok, October 21: The death toll in the avalanche incident of Monday afternoon in West Sikkim reached to two with authorities confirming the death of a Mumbai mountaineer and other unidentified climber even as efforts to evacuate the other injured climbers by Indian Air Force proved futile after 72 hours since the mishap occurred.
District Collector (West) S Pradhan told media that the first deceased was identified as Mangesh Despande, the team leader of the four member Mumbai expedition team that had successfully scaled the 6010 m Mt Thingchinkhang peak in West Sikkim on Monday. The team accompanied by two Sherpas was descending down to their base camp at Thangshing when an avalanche hit them at an altitude of 5400 m on Monday afternoon. While Despande was blown away by the avalanche, one more member of the team succumbed to his injuries, it is informed. However, details are yet to filter in the site which is very remote and without any communications network and the identity of the second deceased is not yet informed to us, said the District Collector. Tourism stakeholders here engaged in the rescue and evacuation efforts informed that the body of Despande is visible to the rescue team but could not be recovered due to bad weather conditions. A rescue team had reached the site yesterday evening and had brought down the surviving members of the expedition team to Thangshing where two choppers from the Indian Air Force were supposed to land and airlift them to Gangtok or Siliguri for medical treatment. The choppers had flown today morning from the Bagdogra airport in Siliguri but could not land at Thangshing due to bad weather conditions. It is informed that the surviving members including one Sherpa who sustained serious injuries in the incident are being manually brought down to Tsoka where arrangements are made for transferring them to the nearest hospital. The choppers which returned back to their base will again make an attempt to land at Thangshing tomorrow morning while that the recovery team will try to bring back the bodies from the incident site to the landing site. As per the information received late in the afternoon, the rescue team have sighted the body of Despande locked in a snow field while the body of the second unidentified person is trapped in a crevasse. It could either be a Mumbai climber or a porter but confirmed details are yet to come to the authorities here and in West Sikkim. Meanwhile, a two member special team from Sonam Gyasto Mountaineering Institute here, Kunzang Gyatso and Bishnu Tamang reached Yuksom today on a chopper and will be assisting the team engaged in recovering the bodies from the avalanche site. A team of four mountaineers from Mumbai had scaled Mt. Thingchinkhang on Monday and were hit by an avalanche while returning down to their base camp in the same afternoon. A porter had rushed down from the base camp to the nearest habitat to inform about the incident and the authorities with active support of Travel Agents Association of Sikkim had scrambled a rescue-relief team and dispatched them to the incident spot yesterday morning. According to forest officials posted in west side of Khangchendzonga National Park at Yuksom, a team of five mountaineers-Mangesh Despande, Anju Paniculam, Sadasivan Sekar, Shantanu Pandit and Parag Pendharkar- from Mumbai had passed through their check post on October 12 on their way to the peak. They had a permit pass till October 24 and were accompanied by five porters and one liaison officer from the State Home department. It is informed that Anju Paniculam stayed back at the base camp due to ill health and the other four climbers went ahead with the ascent along with some members of the support team. They successfully scaled Mt. Thingchinkhang and had ascended down some 500 m when an avalanche hit them, killing Despande and injuring others. |
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Khangchendzonga Trek
Total days :10 to 12 Days
Total days :10 to 12 Days
Dzongri Trek
Total days :5 to 7days
Total days :5 to 7days
