At least 77 people have been confirmed dead in floods that hit northeastern India, authorities said Sunday, and destroyed roads and bridges left thousands more isolated despite receding waters.
Violent torrents hit the state of Sikkim on Wednesday after a high-altitude glacial lake suddenly burst.
Scientists warn that similar disasters will become an increasing danger across the Himalayas as global temperatures rise and ice melts, driven by climate change.
"A total of 29 bodies have been recovered from different parts of Sikkim," state relief commissioner Anilraj Rai told AFP by phone.
In the neighboring state of West Bengal, police in Jalpaiguri district told AFP that another 48 bodies had been recovered.
According to official figures, more than 100 people are still missing.
Water levels along the Teesta River "returned to normal" four days after the floods, an official at Sikkim's state disaster control room told AFP.
The office said more than 2,500 people trapped in the floods had been rescued.
But evacuations have been complicated by the destruction of roads, bridges and telephone lines in much of Sikkim.
Another 3,000 people remained stranded in several relief camps in the state's north and air rescues were delayed by bad weather, the office said.
According to the state government, more than 1,200 houses were damaged by the floods.
- Loose artillery -
Among the dead were eight Indian Army soldiers stationed in Sikkim, which lies on India's remote borders with Nepal and China and has a sizeable military presence.
India's Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that floods had washed away "firearms and explosives" from military camps.
Local media reported on Friday that two people were killed and four others injured by a mortar shell that exploded while flowing through flood waters in West Bengal.
The surge came after heavy rain burst the high-altitude Lake Lhonak, which sits at the base of a glacier in the peaks surrounding the world's third-highest mountain, Kangchenjunga.
The water rushed downstream, swelling a river already swollen by monsoon rains, damaging a dam and washing away homes.
Himalayan glaciers are melting faster than ever due to climate change, exposing communities to unpredictable and costly disasters, according to the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) research group.
"The root cause is climate change," ICIMOD's Arun Bhakta Shrestha told AFP on Thursday. "Similar floods are very likely to occur in glacial lakes."
Earth's average surface temperature has risen nearly 1.2 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, but high mountain regions around the world have warmed at twice that rate, climate scientists say.
