Schoolchildren wait for their turn to be air-lifted in Chungthang, one of the worst quake-hit areas in north Sikkim, on Thursday. (AP)

Gangtok, Sept. 22: Army troopers trekked on foot or rappelled down ropes while helicopters dropped rations and food packets today in sorties over quake-ravaged North Sikkim as help finally reached villages cut off since Sunday’s deadly tremors triggered multiple landslides.

The villages include nine in Dzongu where road links had snapped.

“All villages in Dzongu affected by the quake have been reached by the army either on foot or through air. In areas we could not reach on foot, our army people rappelled down ropes and reached medical assistance to injured villagers,” said Major General S.L. Narasimhan, General Officer Commanding, 17 Mountain Division.

The isolated villages in Dzongu were Shipgyer, Bey, Saffo, Salem, Payel, Sakyong, Pentong, Lingzya and Tholung where authorities said restoring roads would take time because of the extensive damage.

Fourteen army helicopters dropped nine tonnes of food rations and 2,000 food packets over areas, including those in Chungthang still inaccessible because of multiple slides along the North Sikkim highway from Toong, 10km away.

Asked if any village in Dzongu, the protected area of the Lepchas, Sikkim’s indigenous tribal community, had been left out, the officer said army personnel had reached all villages whose isolation reports had reached the force.

“We don’t have information of any other village that has been left out,” he added.

Narasimhan said around 200 people who had suffered injuries were treated by army personnel. “We have rescued 161 people, including 21 tourists, from different parts of North Sikkim who were brought to (administrative headquarters) Mangan. Ten South African engineers working at the Teesta Urja hydel power project in Chungthang were also evacuated. They are on the way to Mangan by road,” the officer said. Teesta Urja Ltd is implementing the 1,200MW project at Chungthang, the confluence of Lachen and Lachung rivers. Chungthang is some 100km from Gangtok.

The state government said not a single tourist was stranded in Sikkim. According to chief secretary Karma Gyatso, government doctors were reaching the isolated villages in Dzongu while relief workers from the army, the National Disaster Response Force and Sikkim Armed Police had fanned out in the region to help residents. Army sources said the priority was to provide food and medical relief to Dzongu’s stranded residents.

Gyatso said the government had in different parts of the state set up over 100 relief camps under the supervision of block development officers.

The officer said chief minister Pawan Chamling today sanctioned Rs 5 lakh each to all gram panchayat units and Rs 10 lakh each to the Lachen and Lachung dzumsas, a traditional form of panchayats, for relief. Each of the four district collectors in the state has been sanctioned Rs 50 lakh for relief measures while the 29 block development officers have been sanctioned Rs 5 lakh each.

Chamling will tour the affected areas from tomorrow, starting with worst-hit North Sikkim, where 57 deaths have been officially confirmed. Altogether 75 people have died in Sikkim, the government said in a release.