In the second week of Dec2012, I had the pleasure of interacting with Mr
Debashish Bhattacharya, senior geologist from Geological Survey of India, which
is the nodal body looking after landslides in the country. The GSI scientist
was in Kalimpong for 10days with a mandate to update the GSI landslide
inventory of this area.
I am glad to say that a group of volunteers and I could
accompany the geologist to all the major landslide zones in the vicinity of
Kalimpong town and also provide him assistance in visiting landslide sites in Nimbong, Suruk,
Samthar, Algarah and Payun (ie places in Kalimpong sub-division but at a considerable distance from town).
All this points to the vital necessity of involvement of
local people in landslide surveys by any outstation scientific body if the
correct picture of the landslide situation is to emerge; because
only through local participation can the GSI (or any other body) understand the
past history of the area and the impact of landslides on human beings, which after all should be the final endeavor of any scientific inquiry.
Placed above are images of some ot the areas we visited along with captions. Many of the sites have links on this blog where you can read more details :-
SLIDE 1 - read further here
SLIDE 2 - read further here
SLIDE 7,8,9 - read further here
Placed above are images of some ot the areas we visited along with captions. Many of the sites have links on this blog where you can read more details :-
SLIDE 1 - read further here
SLIDE 2 - read further here
SLIDE 7,8,9 - read further here
My thanks to Debashish for his time and for accompanying us
on those long, steep treks as we chased landslides in Kalimpong.
Praful Rao
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