India’s Sikkim – Tashi Choden Lepcha was woken in the middle of the night when her mountainside home in Naga village erupted in shock. Perched above the Teesta River, which flows through a gorge just below, Naga is a remote village in India’s northeastern Himalayan state of Sikkim. The Indigenous Lepcha people have lived there for centuries.
“It felt like an earthquake”, the 51-year-old mother of five says of the events of October 4, 2023. “The whole house was shaking. We couldn’t see anything because it was heavily raining.
In the pitch dark and amid the heavy downpour that night, Lepcha roused her three children, aged 13, 10 and five, and rushed out of the house with her husband, panicking. They searched for a safe place on higher ground with a few neighbors. That’s when they noticed a distinct smell of mud and something like gunpowder.
Moments later, an enormous, tsunami-like wave surged down with terrifying force. Lepcha was unaware of the flood, which was a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOOF), which had been caused by the sudden avalanche of ice and rock entering South Lhonak Lake, a glacial lake high up in the Teesta basin in North Sikkim.
The impact breached the lake’s moraine wall, releasing more than 50 million cubic metres of water. The largest hydropower plant in Sikkim, located at Chungthang on the largest river in Sikkim, Teesta III, which originates in the eastern Himalayas, was destroyed by the flood. It is the largest hydropower plant in Sikkim, measuring 1,200 megawatts. The dam’s collapse released an additional five million cubic metres (equivalent to 2, 000 Olympic swimming pools) of reservoir water.
The high-velocity flood in the Teesta River valley carried about 270 million cubic metres of sediment and debris along with it, causing widespread devastation across Sikkim, parts of West Bengal and Bangladesh through which the Teesta flows.
More than 7, 025 people were displaced, and at least 55 people were killed. 74 of those who went missing. The flood damaged nearly 26, 000 buildings, destroyed 31 bridges and flooded more than 270 square kilometres of farmland. Additionally, it caused 45 landslides, damaged four dams, and completely destroyed National Highway 10.
Both Teesta III and Teesta V, another hydroelectric dam near Dikchu in Balutar, have remained shut since they were severely damaged during the flood. Repair work is continuing, but neither of the dams has generated electricity for almost two years.
According to scientists, the destruction’s magnitude makes it one of the most devastating floods to have occurred in recent years in the Himalayas.
Rebuilding amid ruin
Today, Naga village, located about 73 kilometres from Sikkim’s capital, Gangtok, is deserted due to continuous land subsidence. Houses are sagging, have collapsed, or are leaning toward the river below. The main NH10 road passing through the village has been destroyed with long, deep cracks.
About 150 families lost their homes and land in the flood, leaving them with uncertain futures. Lepcha’s family lost both their houses, which collapsed in the landslides. They, along with 19 other families, are now living temporarily in a government tourist lodge in Singhik, about 10km from their home.
Despite concerns about the potential for future glacial lake outburst floods and the seismic-sensitiveness of the region and the communities along the Teesta, which are still displaced and vulnerable, the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEF&, CC) approved plans to rebuild the Teesta III dam without any public consultation.
With the ongoing monsoon season, the Teesta’s water levels have risen significantly. The Sankalang Bridge, which is still under construction, has already been flooded by this, which has already caused a number of landslides in North Sikkim.
Long stretches of roads across North Sikkim are still unpaved, muddy and full of rubble. Several bridges damaged during the 2023 flood and the monsoon next year are yet to be rebuilt.
Construction work has been halted because of the removal of the Chungthang dam site’s quality control lab. “It looks like a war-torn area. How is Teesta III going to be rebuilt? asks Gyatso Lepcha, a climate activist with Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT), a group of Lepchas campaigning against large hydropower projects and environmental conservation in the region.
“A detailed risk assessment considering future climate scenarios, glacial behaviour, hydrological changes, and sedimentation rates is essential before deciding to rebuild the dam in the same location”, says Farooq Azam, senior cryosphere specialist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
The region’s Lepcha communities are protesting against the construction in the absence of such a review because they fear a second disaster.
A contentious dam
Sikkim is home to 40 of India’s 189 potentially dangerous glacial lakes across the Himalayan region, many of which are at risk due to rising temperatures and glacial melt driven by climate change.
Built on a river already lined with dams constructed by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), the Teesta III dam was originally pitched as a renewable energy project.
The dam’s construction was approved in 2005 with a budget of Rs 5, 705 crore (roughly $667m), but by 2017 it had already cost more than Rs 14, 000 crore ($1.6bn). Delays were caused by the 2011 earthquake, which destroyed major infrastructure, and also repeated flash floods and landslides.
Environmentalists and the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) criticized the dam because of its excessive costs, lengthy delays, environmental damage, and disregard for Indigenous rights and livelihoods.
The operator, Sikkim Urja Limited (formerly Teesta Urja Ltd or TUL), was forced to sell electricity at half the agreed rate as buyers, including the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, refused to pay higher prices. In 2017, transmission delays caused yet more losses of about Rs 6 crore ($701, 000) per day from June to September 2017.
Experts wonder how such a massive reconstruction could be carried out at less than a third of the cost of the dam’s original building, which is now estimated to cost Rs 4, 189 crore ($490m).
An investigation in May this year renewed concerns about the project. The independent power producer, who, according to the findings of the police investigation, lacked the necessary qualifications for a project of this size, was chosen by the Sikkim Vigilance Police, a special police force. It was alleged that critical dam design parameters had been compromised as a result.
Other reports have found that environmental assessments also overlooked key risks. The Chungthang region was classed as a highly arid ecological zone in Delhi University’s 2006 biodiversity report [PDF]. Yet the project received swift environmental clearance from the environment ministry based on a report which claimed that little to no significant wildlife existed in the area. The ministry’s own directive, which required that no dams in Sikkim be approved until the Teesta basin’s complete “carrying capacity study” (a study of an area’s capacity to support human life and industry), had been bypassed.
“What was the hurry to give clearance for rebuilding even before the Central Water Commission and Central Electricity Authority cleared the design”? asks Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), an advocacy group working on the water sector. Prior to 2006, the Environmental Impact Report (EIA) used didn’t take into account the risk of a GLOF. It contributed to the disaster, and now the same flawed EIA is being used again. Even the dam safety report that was created following the collapse has not been made public or taken into account.
While a “concrete faced rockfill dam” is planned this time – supposedly more resilient to flooding than the old “concrete gravity dam” design – experts and local communities still worry this won’t be enough because, they say, key impact studies are incomplete.
Despite concerns about safety and environmental effects, Al Jazeera contacted MoEF&, CC to inquire as to why the Teesta III reconstruction had been approved without a new EIA. Questions were also sent to Sikkim Urja Ltd regarding reconstruction plans and structural safety and to NHPC about the cumulative impacts of multiple dams along the Teesta. By the time of publication, all of these offices’ emails and calls had been unreturned.
Tunnelling and blasting during the original construction of Teesta III, before it opened in 2017, led to landslides, erosion and damage to homes. Yet, no comprehensive assessment has been conducted on seismic risks, reduced river flow or long-term ecological impacts.
Our soil is fragile, according to ACT president Sangdup Lepcha. “We are seeing more landslides every year. The soil was completely washed away during the GLOF. If tunnels are dug again under our villages, the area could collapse”.
Sangdup, who lives in Sanggong village in Lower Dzongu, says the 10km stretch from Namprikdang to Dikchu is the only remaining stretch of the Teesta without any dams.
Many people are concerned that villages will be in danger if Teesta III’s reconstruction continues without any safeguards. “We have already seen what happened in Naga”, says Sangdup. Why is the project receiving urgent approval while the families of the affected are still awaiting rehabilitation?
Sacred land
Dzongu, a region bordering the Kanchenjunga Biosphere Reserve in North Sikkim, is a protected reserve for the Indigenous Lepcha community. The Lepchas from Dzongu have long opposed large-scale hydropower projects in the area to protect their identity, livelihoods, and the region’s biodiversity. They are known for their spiritual ties to rivers and mountains.
When multiple dams were proposed in the early 2000s along the Teesta basin – a river the Lepchas revere as a living deity – ACT spearheaded protests against dam construction. Their hunger strikes and protests led to the cancellation of four major hydropower projects in Dzongu and four outside.
Our main character, Mayalmit Lepcha, the general secretary of the ACT, says, “We are animists.” “Our traditions, culture, identity, and everything else are tied to Mount Kanchenjunga, Teesta, Rangeet and Rongyong rivers here”.
The communities claim that during the public consultation process, despite their long history of activism, the 520 MW Teesta IV hydroelectric project would be based on their land and rivers.
At least 16 villages lie near the potential construction site, across the agricultural belt of North Sikkim. The project would include building tunnels underneath Hee Gyathang and Sanggong villages in Dzongu to carry water to the power station. Under the Tung Kyong Dho, a sacred lake known for its rich biodiversity, is supposed to run the siltation tunnel, which will divert sediment-laden water from the main reservoir.
Songmit Lepcha, from Dzongu’s Hee Gyathang village, told Al Jazeera that she lost her livestock and plantation during flash floods in June last year. Songmit yelled, “We fear rebuilding our homes,” in a voice filled with worry.
Opposition Citizen Action Party (CAP) leader Ganesh Rai told Al Jazeera that he is particularly worried about the new plans to rebuild the dam to a height of 118.64 metres, twice as high as the original. “With climate change intensifying, any future breach could submerge all of Chungthang”, he said. It won’t just affect Dzongu, but everyone else downstream as well.
That could include settlements in Dikchu, Rangpo, Singtam and Kalimpong, and Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts in West Bengal, which were severely affected by the 2023 flood. Since the 2023 floods, families have been residing in impromptu shelters like Bhalukhola near Melli. Conditions are difficult, with limited access to clean water, sanitation and medical care.
Struggles downstream
Leboon Thapa, 22, was only a hundred kilometers downstream of the old Teesta III dam’s site when the flood hit Bhalukhola, in north Bengal, to destroy the family home. It also disrupted his dreams of a professional football career.
Leboon is now living with his parents in a single, cramped room inside a relief camp along the Teesta highway, which is situated above Bhalukhola. They are sandwiched between the Sevoke-Rangpo railway project’s ongoing tunnel construction work and the works being done to widen the highway in front of their site. The exposed location leaves them at risk of landslides and flooding.
The lanky, athletic young man, looking around his village, says, “If they are rebuilding the dam, they must build protection walls here for our safety.” The fields he played football in as a child, as well as the playground he once ran about in, are now buried under silt and debris. “We only have this land. Where do we go if we lose it?”
About 10km further downstream in Teesta Bazar, 68-year-old Tikaram Karki lost his house and motorcycle repair shop to the 2023 flooding. Just a few days after the flood, his house, which was constructed above the riverbank, started cracking and sliding.
“We were hiding in the mountains in the rain. When we came back at 6am, there were no houses, roads, or electricity”, he says, as he stands next to what remains of his house and shop, both of which are leaning steeply towards the Teesta. Even as he discusses his losses from that terrible night, he grinnes.
Tikaram now lives in a rented house with his family of four. He is running his business and is paying Rs 8, 000 ($93) per month in exchange for financial losses.
He received some compensation from the West Bengal state government, but it does not cover all he has lost. “I have been living here for 30 years and spent Rs 30 lakh ($35, 000) building my house. I received only Rs. 75, 000 ($876) in compensation. What will happen with that”?
Tikaram, like others in this area, claims that the dam’s elevation raised the Teesta’s riverbed, adding years of poor planning and unchecked silt buildup, made the destruction worse.
“If they had cleared the silt during the dry months, we wouldn’t be so vulnerable now”, he says.
“I cannot tell the government not to build the dam, but they should build proper protection for all the people still living along Teesta”, adds Tikaram.
Rising risk
South Lhonak Lake is one of Sikkim’s more rapidly expanding and hazardous glacial lakes, according to a study conducted by an international team of scientists and NGOs and published in the Science journal in January 2025. The lake expanded from 0.15 square kilometres in 1975 to 1.68sq km by 2023, posing a danger of flooding to the communities downstream.
“The Teesta-III dam played a significant role in amplifying the downstream impact of the South Lhonak GLOF disaster”, Azam, at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), tells Al Jazeera.
Azam argues that improved infrastructure planning and active lake monitoring could have significantly reduced the impact of the disastrous flood, despite the fact that it could not have been avoided. “Reinforced spillways, sediment handling systems, and early warning systems linked to upstream sensors could have provided critical response time”, he says.
The dam’s power station was still in operation the night of the flood. According to Thakkar, authorities had received alerts well in advance, but there were no standard operating procedures or emergency protocols in place about opening spillway gates during such situations. “And there has been no accountability since”, he added.
According to Thakkar, he claims that despite the current rainfall patterns, the dam’s reconstruction is being done without consideration for the flood potential.
“And what happens to the other downstream dams when this one releases excess water during the next flood”? he inquired. “None of them are being redesigned to withstand that kind of excess flow”.
At the end of May, there was a landslide at the Teesta VI dam site in Singtam. Gyatso remarked, “This happens every monsoon.
Rai criticises the state’s priorities, saying the government was “pushing for more dams instead of strengthening disaster preparedness” at a time when the frequency of extreme weather events is expected to increase.
‘ No Future Here ‘
Nearly two years after the October 2023 flood, Tashi Choden Lepcha still has no home. She talks about her homes in Naga village while choking on her voice.
“We were born there, raised children there. She and her husband, wiping her tears, claim that they now have nothing. Her brother used to live next door: he lost everything as well.
After the disaster, she, her husband and children stayed in a school building in Naga. However, Singhik was tasked with fixing the cracks in the school walls. The lodge, too, is beginning to show cracks in the kitchen and bathroom.
Since moving to Siliguri, where her husband and children reside, for both work and education, while she has remained by herself because she teaches at Naga Secondary School, the couple has since relocated.
The government gave them Rs 1.3 lakh ($1, 520) in compensation, but most of it went on the cost of moving their belongings to different locations.
There have been discussions about allocating land higher up in the mountains for the displaced families. However, many of them worry that their reunification could take years. “If the government gives us land in a safe location, we can build a house. How long can this kind of life last? We have no future here”, she says now.
Most people in the surrounding villages share her fears. They demand that the dam project be abandoned or relocated to a safer location.
Mayalmit echoes this call for caution. There is no denying that there will be more GLOFs.
“People will have confidence only if decisions are based on proper impact assessments, considering all factors, and done in a transparent way”, Thakkar adds. “But that’s not happening now, which is why there’s scepticism about hydro projects among locals”.
He asserts that the decision-making process must involve Indigenous communities. “They’re the ones most at risk, and also the most knowledgeable”.
NGO Save the Hills, which works in North Bengal and Sikkim, has advocated for joint disaster planning between the two states. “What happens upstream affects us downstream. It is time we work together for science-based disaster planning, not blindly push dam projects for revenue”.
Rao warns against unchecked expansion, despite the fact that hydroelectricity is crucial for India’s energy future. “You can’t build dams every few kilometres. How many people can this tense region support safely?
Source: Aljazeera
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