Sikkim
Sikkim, the lesser known, tiny yet an amazing piece of land(North Sikkim) in India. From it’s thick jungle to the heartwarming culture, it’s a must visit travel destination for every tourist. Beautiful monasteries, amazing views of Himalayas, crazy snowfall, dense jungle, Indo-China borders(Nathu La Pass), river adventure activities and many other reasons to visit. The nature is so unpredictable that, this is the only state in India which doesn’t have an operational airport nor an operational railway station.
North Sikkim district
This surprising state has another surprising district which is much more special that Sikkim where its hard even to reach by the roads, the roads are highly unpredictable, the snowfall is unpredictable, landslides, very high river flow, crazy rain yet another marvelous creation of nature in India with breathtaking views of the Himalayas, villages standing tall even at 15,000 ft, gorgeous lakes, beautiful sunrises and what not.
Welcome to North Sikkim, the very lesser known planet in India. North Sikkim district (now called Mangan district) is one of the 6 districts in Sikkim. Surprisingly it is the largest of all with the least population among all too. The density is just 10 per sq km which is one among the lowest in India. Even the population is around 43,000. Most population is concentrated in Mangan, which makes upper areas like Lachen, Lachung with much lesser density areas.
Nature and Geography
The landscape is mountainous with dense vegetation all the way up to the alpine altitude before thinning out to desert scrub towards the northern tundra. Numerous waterfalls astride the main road make the trip to this district extremely picturesque. The region has many power projects and enjoys almost uninterrupted electricity. The steep gradient and the innumerable lakes on the higher reaches facilitate ideal conditions for generation of hydro electric power.
Challenging weather
As explained before, the nature is a very cruel enemy in this region which hampers development and even basic facilities sometimes. Every year the landslides, roadblocks is a very common event and it always happens that villages beyond Mangan are sometimes cutoff for few days completely due to a single highway and the alternate route is very harsh too.
2023 flash floods
On Oct 2023, Sikkim saw one of the deadliest day ever in the history. River Teesta the lifeline of Sikkim actually burst out into absolute carnage destroying everything completely on the way. On that night, the water level at Chungthang river rose upto maximum levels breaking the dam in minutes, destroying the entire village. This is the major hydroelectric project of Sikkim which completely got wiped off.
This was one of the most devastating day in the history of India and it affected all the places in Sikkim, West Bengal and even Bangladesh too. This took lives of 100s of people and left 1000s of tourists stranded. Sikkim was cut off from the outside world due to the broken bridges and roads. Even till today the rainfall is very heavy in Sikkim and always in the risk of such incidents.
Beautiful travel destination
Despite of all this weather and difficult terrains, this is a perfect destination for someone who loves adventure. The challenging roads, thick dense jungle, gorgeous lakes, amazing views of Mt Kanchenjunga, heavy snowfall mostly whole winters and beyond which is rare to be found elsewhere in India.
Lachen and Lachung are the two main places that are connected to North Sikkim. Once one reached Chumthang from Gangtok/Mangan, there’s a Y-junction and both are equally at 25kms distance. Though the distance looks small, the roads are tricky. The altitude keeps increasing and views keep getting better. On the Lachung side, one can explore Zero Point, Yumthang valley along with amazing lakes and views on the way. On the Lachen side, one can visit Gurudongmar lake, one of the highest lakes of India. These are just the important attractions, there are many more along the way and beyond.
Conclusion
For someone who is into mountains and adventure, North Sikkim is my perfect recommendation. Monsoon is never a recommendation unlike what we did. The interesting part about North Sikkim you aren’t sure if you’d be reaching your destination until you reach there. Landslide, broken bridge, extreme water crossings anything might happen to delay or even cancel your plans, will be sharing detailed blogs of my North Sikkim journey of May ’25 soon.