Saturday, August 28, 2010

Landslides in and news from Sikkim


Seven landslides cut off Sikkim link Woman disappears in swirling flash flood (Telegraph, India)
OUR CORRESPONDENT

Gangtok, Aug. 27: Seven landslides struck a 15km stretch of NH31A and crippled traffic on Sikkim’s only road link with the rest of the country after heavy rain lashed the Himalayan state last night. A 31-year-old woman was washed away in one of the flash floods that followed.
The landslides, four of them major ones, occurred between 32 Mile and Singtam on NH31A, the stretch littered with slush and debris that came tumbling down from the hillside late last night and early this morning.
The landslides left at least 100 vehicles coming from Siliguri stranded on the Bengal-Sikkim border at Rangpo for sometime. While some passengers tried to walk and cross the slides, others returned to Siliguri. “The vehicles — there were lots of them — were told to stay put at Singtam for the night,” said A.K. Singh, the executive engineer of Project Swastik of the Border Roads Organisation that is in charge of the highway.
The first major landslide nearest to Gangtok was at the mouth of Topakhani, a 12-metre tunnel, 23km from here.
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From the Sikkim Express
State Disaster Management Authority to oversee natural calamities prevention, mitigation operations
 
SE Report
GANGTOK, August 25: The State government has established a ten-member State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) headed by Chief Minister as ex-officio chairman for emergency and mobilization of resources including manpower for disaster management whenever natural calamities strike Sikkim.
The ministers for urban development, irrigation, health services, rural development, public health engineering, roads & bridges and buildings & housing departments are also members in the SDMA.
State chief secretary TT Dorji is also a member of this authority with disaster management department secretary as the member secretary.
It is informed that the SDMA shall be an authority for declaration of disaster situation and disaster areas with boundaries and declaration of emergency and mobilization of resources including manpower for relief work, rehabilitation, reconstruction, search and rescue for disaster management when disaster occurs.

Praful Rao

Photo credit : "Landslide at Namok Khola, Mangan, North Sikkim" from Sikkim Express



2 comments:

Unknown said...

I was travelling on approximately july 27th from Pelling to Darjeeling in India. We came across a landslide on one of the main routes and i was hoping that maybe you had some information on the location and maybe even some photos of the landslide? I've been doing some research but i havent been able to find anything as i'm unsure about the whereabouts of the landslide.
I'll be very grateful if you can help!

Unknown said...

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TO AVOID TRAGIDIES SUCH AS 8th JUNE,2014 HAPPEND IN INDIA, WHERE 24 COLLEGE PICNIC STUDENTS DROWNED AT LARJI HYDEL PROJECT AT HIMACHAL PREDESH, ON SUDDEN RELEASE OF WATER FROM RESERVOER, ALL WATER RELESING AUTHORITIES FROM DAMS ,IF THEY FOLLOW THESE IMPORTANT POINTS 1) TO ANNOUNCE WATER RELEASE IN ADVANCE, 2) RELEASE SUCH ADVANCE ANNOUNCED WATER AT “0” HOURS IN THE NIGHT AND 3) RELEASE WATER FOR FEW HOURS AT LEAST QUANTITY FOR FEW HOURS.
YOUR AWARENESS YOUR SECURITY PRECAUTION,
YOUR ALERTNES YOUR SAFETY PROTECTION.
KRISHNAMURTY
FOUNDER
SRIMISSION
www.srimission.org