SIKKIM’S DISASTER OF NEGLECT : When People’s Voices Go Unheard
August 30, 2025
Despite Warnings by environment experts, development projects like dams are turning out to be deadly. Destroying mountains, flooded rivers, The flash floods, cloudburst are not just natural, they are man made disasters.
Newsreel Asia’s producer Surabhi Singh travelled to Northeastern state of Sikkim to explore how a dam aggravated the flash floods of October 2023.
She met Mayalmit Lepcha, general secretary of the Affected Citizens of Teesta—a grassroots environmental group in Sikkim that unites local residents, particularly indigenous Lepcha communities. Mayalmit explains how their deep bond with nature compelled them to resist reckless development in the fragile, young mountains of Sikkim.
The movement began nearly two decades ago and reached its peak in a hunger strike that forced the government to cancel four proposed hydropower projects. These projects, if built, would have severely harmed the region’s ecology, livelihoods, and way of life. Yet, despite persistent protests from locals and repeated warnings from scientists, the 1,200 MW Teesta III project—the largest hydropower dam in the state—was approved. Neither the government nor India’s National Green Tribunal heeded the red flags.
On October 3, 2023, those fears became reality. A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF)—a phenomenon in which a lake formed by melting glaciers suddenly breaches—sent torrents of water downstream. The Teesta III dam at Chungthang lay directly in its path, unleashing devastation. More than 95 people lost their lives, 75 went missing, and thousands were displaced as homes and livelihoods were swept away.
This tragedy could have been avoided had the government placed greater value on people’s lives than on short-sighted development.
Worse still, no lessons seem to have been learned. Despite the destruction, the washed-away dam has been cleared for reconstruction—once again disregarding expert warnings and putting lives at risk.