STH Activities : Landslide Survey on the eastern flanks of Kalimpong (14July2016)

 14th Mile Landslide

The 14th mile 'sinking zone' lying on the eastern face of the Kalimpong ridgeline is one of the old landslide areas of this town. It is repaired on annual basis and is rumored to be a "blessing" to many a contractor - except that now with population growing and even a posh hotel coming up directly above this site, it will also be a curse to quite a few.
When I visited the site on 14Jul2016, I found that a portion of the road to Algarah had sunk considerably (slide 'A') and worse still the culvert next to it had also sunk (slide 'B') - and ALL the water from the culvert was percolating into the crack (slide 'C') acting as a lubricant to an unstable hillside ready to slide down.
Coordinates :
27°05´27.6” N

088°31´57.0”E
Elevation : 1372m

Landslide blocking Kalimpong - Lava Road

With our main road to the external world, NH10 always in a precarious state during the monsoons, we rely on the Kalimpong- Lava- Gorubathan road as our an alternate route to the plains. Unfortunately, this road also has quite a few 'hotspots' which keep the BRO busy during the monsoons.
On Sunday, 10July2016 at around 1600h, following the 125mm rainfall of Saturday, a portion of this road near Rickisum gave way. It remained blocked for 4 days and effectively cut off Lava and much of the eastern parts of sub-division from Kalimpong town.

Coodinates :

27°05´49.5”N
088°36´22.6”E
Elevation : 1804m

Praful Rao,

Kalimpong,

Dist Darjeeling

STH activities : At the Kohima Workshop on DRR and Climate Change : 07/08July2016

The workshop was organized by NSDMA, SDFN, IMI and supported by NECTAR
It was indeed heartening to see so many state government officials and line departments attending and actively participating in both the days of the seminar.
Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

Rainfall data Jun2016 - Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalaya

The monsoons arrived over the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya almost 10 days late (14Jun instead of 05Jun2016), yet the first burst of rains after a drought-like situation brought in floods in many areas of Dooars and Alipur Duar.
Many parts of Sikkim received heavy rains leading to the dams releasing excess water on the Teesta and Rangit rivers - this would have contributed to the flooding in Jalpaiguri.
There were no major landslides in this region.

Rainfall data collection and preparation : Rohan Rao

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
 

STH Activities (03Jul2016) - Awareness workshop with officials of the Forest Department (W.Bengal Govt)

My grateful thanks to Dr PT Bhutia (IFS) - Spl APCCF and Chief Conservator of Forests, Northern Circle for making the awareness workshop possible.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

Lest we forget : The deluge and deaths of 30Jun/01Jul2015

STH has covered the events in separate blogs (see 1,2,3)

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling