A bulldozer clears rubble from National Highway 55 at Sonada, 20km from Darjeeling town. The road connects Siliguri with Darjeeling. (Kundan Yolmo)

May 27: A day after the hills were crippled by a tsunami of landslides, tourists scrambled to reach the plains.

In Darjeeling this morning, hundreds hunted for vehicles and got on to any jeep or truck willing to take the only open route, through Mirik, to Siliguri.

District magistrate Surendra Gupta said they were taking a risk as the roads were sill slippery. But that did not prevent Arijit Das of Garia from hopping onto a truck. “I missed my train last evening. If I make it to Siliguri, I can catch a bus to Calcutta,” he said.

He was among over a hundred people who boarded two trucks near the Queens Hill area.

Sitting on the roadside with their baggage, Tarun Ghosh and his family tried to contact tour operators in Siliguri. “This thing (the mobile phone) never works during crises,” the Durgapur resident said.

Driver Santosh said there were mudslips along Mirik Road today and vehicles were going past them at snail’s pace.

A jeep that usually charges around Rs 125 per passenger for a downhill trip was asking for up to Rs 400 today.

Even then there were too many people and not enough transport. Among them was Raja Rathinam, part of a group of 70 from Tamil Nadu, who was frantically looking for a way down.

From Siliguri, hardly anyone risked going up. Salt Lake resident Shital Chatterjee vowed to stay back. “We plan to go to Gangtok tom- orrow. We are here for a week and may get a chance to go to Darjeeling, too,” he said.

Many others were not so sure. “There is no point taking the risk,” said Shomak Dhar, from Barrackpore, who arrived today with friends. They plan to go to the Dooars, in the foothills.

Over 40 tourists are stranded in north Sikkim. The army took to safety 24 people stranded 120km from Gangtok on the way back from Gurudongma Lake. Another group got stuck between Chungthang and Lachen when a bridge was washed away by flash floods.