When a mountainside gave way before dawn on 24 June, engulfing the NEEPCO residential colony at Poosa village in Arunachal Pradesh's Keyi Panyor district, the immediate explanation was simple: an extreme monsoon cloudburst had triggered a devastating flash flood.
Bridges collapsed, farmlands vanished under water, and nearly a thousand cattle and goats were swept away in a single village alone. Entire communities are now waiting, isolated, for help to reach them.
The Nah Welfare Society, representing indigenous communities in Upper Subansiri district, has accused the People’s Liberation Army of gradually occupying traditional grazing lands and hunting grounds near Taksing, north of the Subansiri River.
NDRF said rescue efforts have been affected by difficult conditions at the site, including the mountainous landscape and changing weather.
"The true measure of leadership lies in the trust it earns and the service it renders," Vice-President C P Radhakrishnan said while speaking at a book release event here on Wednesday.
A State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) team has been deployed, while National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel are also moving towards the affected areas for relief and rescue efforts.
People in North-east India still remember the aggression of 1962 from Communist China, which claimed a major portion of Arunachal Pradesh as Southern Tibet.
Special emphasis has been laid on the development of infrastructure in the difficult terrains in Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, and parts of Uttarakhand bordering China.
The latest action comes after sustained protests and mobilisation by the Arunachal Pradesh Indigenous Youth Organisation (APIYO), which has been raising concerns over unauthorised structures and settlement patterns in parts of the state.
Sonam Zomba overcame early pressure from Brazil’s Maristela Alves to defend her strawweight title at Matrix Fight Night 18 in Greater Noida. She sealed the win with a third-round armbar.
