SHERO- A teacher who saved students from landslide at Sikkim's village

By NIRMAL MANGAR

Lakhmit Lepcha was teaching dance to her students at a primary school in Mantam village (4th Mile)  in North Sikkim when the hill opposite her school rolled down.
less than an hour lepcha along with her students witnessed their school engulfing by a rising water level.

A- 35- year teacher with tears in her eyes recounts the horror and how her presence in mind saved school children from the disaster.

Following is the verbatim ( she was filled with tears while narrating the incident)

It was August 13, Saturday (aroymf 1:30pm) : Though it was a government holiday we had call the students for a cultural preparation to be performed during the Independence day celebration in the village.

The students had just begun the practise, when  all of a sudden we felt a strong tremor and heard a loud noise. The windows of our class room broke down, the children started crying. There was an old village woman who was also present in the school premises. I grabbed her and closed the door. There was a complete darkness in the room. The dust choking us. Later we were rescued by the villagers.

I get nervous even thinking of that horrific moment, I am happy my students are safe. I don't know whether we would ever get a chance to see our old school.

Mantam primrary school has sixteen students and eight teachers.