The first landslide awareness program was held at Tapoban,
The program was anchored by Rtn Bharat Mani Pradhan and attended by 40 odd persons including two geologists from Geological Survey of India and a few non Rotary club members.
Wg Cdr Praful Rao (retd) began the program with a 40 mins power point presentation on the landslide situation in Kalimpong due to the Sep2007 rains. This included a slide show of the various landslides which had taken place in the vicinity of Kalimpong and also in
There after, there was a an interactive session for approximately one hour 20mins where persons in the audience asked the GSI scientists questions about landslides and related issues.
This was followed by brief insight by Mr UM Pradhan, town planner and engineer, into the necessity of setting up satellite towns in the district in order to relieve population pressure in the main towns of
The meeting ended at 1900hrs.
praful rao
Some names who participated in the healthy interaction (in random order) :-
ReplyDelete1. Ms. Gayatri Kharel, Structural Engineer,
2. Mr. L.O. Panlook, Civil Engineer,
3. Dr. Ram Bahadur Bhujel, (Botanist), Principal, Cluny Womens' College,
4. Dr. Deo Dutta Rai, Head of Department of Geography, Kalimpong College,
5. Dr. Yonah Bhutia, HOD Geog Cluny College,
6. Mrs. Dolly Phuchurey, St. Augustine's School,
7. Dr. Diwakar Pradhan, Dept. of Nepali, Kalimpong College,
8. Mr. Sudeep Zerome, Young volunteer from Anugyalaya,
9. Mr. Albert Lepcha, yet another volunteer from Anugyalaya and
10. Rtn. Capt. Andrew Lal.
Other guests who attended were :-
1. Er. Deepak Pradhan, Divisional Engineer, Rural Electrification, DGHC,
2. Mr. O.B. Das, Red Cross, Kalimpong,
3. Mr. P.T. Bhutia and
4. Dr. Dulal Chandra Roy, HOD Eco, Kalimpong College
Of course, the most eminent resource scientists were :-
1. Mr. Niraj Sarkar, Senior Geologist, Geological Survey of India and
2. Dr. Timir Baran Ghosal, GSI
both of whom have been working extensively on Landslide study of these eastern Himalayas.
On 24th September I had posted the following comment :-
ReplyDelete= " Without wasting time, we need to :-
1. Invite experts through our network to study the ground reality right from the hill-tops to the lower reaches;
2. Seek their technical actionable recommendations; and then
3. Act.
For starters :-
1. Let us look around in the data-base of such technical volunteers; and
2. Take on from there for seeking obtainable "Grants" to fund their travel and daily allowance.
3. Based on their advice, submit detailed project to "funding agencies".
These, I believe, are doable.
Let's 'just do it'.
Yours for the cause,
Rtn. Bharat Mani Pradhan
September 24, 2007 7:38 PM " =
Things ARE happening, thanks to Praful's activism!
Now that the "experts" HAVE come and are doing their bit to augment the efforts of the footsoldiers; civil society AND the administration need to be in readyness to do THEIR bit to help in implementing the technical actionable recommendation, as and when it is submitted to the concerned authorities.
Let it not just get filed and gather dust!!