Working with Communities : Jungpana T.E (Kurseong) - 21Feb2010

Jungpana Tea Estate (T.E) is located 5 kilometers east of NH55 and is 12km from Kurseong town. Everything in the T.E has to be brought in from Kurseong and to do that they have to cross Changey khola (river)  which is the site of a huge landslide.
The situation gets worse during the monsoons, so two persons stand on the either side of the khola to watch if it is safe to cross since even if there is a little rainfall the stones start rolling down. This procedure becomes critical when carrying sick people to the hospital.
Jungpana T.E is surrounded by landslides from three sides; on the east are the Malu Taar slides, with Changey khola in the west and the Majuwa slides in the north. There are many small landslides all over the village and what is really alarming is that cracks have developed all over the village. Jaydeep Tamang a local resident observed "I don’t think my house will withstand this monsoons and we cannot do any thing unless the Tea Estate gives us the permission" he further added “nothing is going to happen unless the house is completely destroyed”
Houses damaged by the Cyclone AILA are still not repaired and many of the compensations claimed have not been received by the villagers.
The people who were present today were eager to learn about the risk management and they assured STH that they will impart the knowledge to other people who were not present in the program.
I urged the villagers to prepare a basic village level disaster management plan in order to face the monsoons in a better and look into the drainage system in the village to the extent possible

-report filed by
Bhushan Chhetri
STH Member,
Kurseong


Remarks by Praful Rao
It is wonderful to have a Bhushan, a young volunteer achieve all this with no help (except guidance from us) from any one. Kudos to him!!