Visit to Balasun and Paglajhora landslides - 10May2011

This week, we were lucky to have Dr A Chakrabarti (retd Professor of Geology, Presidency University, Kolkata) and Mr A Kundu (Jadavpur University, Kolkata), who were here for three days (09-11May2011) to document the history of  landslides in this area as a part of a Govt of W Bengal project.
Besides them STH also has Arhat Wakode, a 22yr old scholar from Jamshetji Tata Centre for Disaster Management, TISS, Mumbai who is interning with us for a period of two weeks.
After spending 09May2011 visiting the many landslide areas near Kalimpong and talking to affected people, we were in Kurseong on 10May2011 and visited the Balasun and Paglajhora landslides.
Despite having written about Balasun and Paglajhora landslides earlier I was shocked to see the sheer size of both these landslides; the adverse impact of which on the lives and economy affected people was very apparent. I therefore wonder how the media has only glossed over both disasters. I have uploaded large size photos to put both these in the correct perspective.

Praful Rao