09July2019: Landslide report from Darjeeling.

Landslide in front of Anugayalaya/Divyavani, near Loreto Convent, Darjeeling

 At around 4:30 am on Tuesday Morning i.e., 9^th July, a landslide occurred in front of Anugayalaya/Divyavani near Loreto Convent (to be precise below Bishop’s House, NH10).The debris covered the entire road in front of the building which caused the drain water to enter inside the building (fig. 1.0).

The landslide took place at the adjoining road (i.e., a road to Anugayalaya’s Office) on NH10 (Lebong Hill Cart Road).There were few signs of crack visible on the road in fig 1.2. The slide is measured to be around 13 metres in height and 6 metres in width. However, to consider the width of the whole areas, is 30 metres (which is also the length of Pony road). The rainfall data as measured by IMD over the past 24 hours is 112 mm.

The staffs(Church and Anugayalaya) witnessed the incident in the morning. Around 4 am in the morning, they noticed drain water streaming down the slope and slowly leading to landslide. The slide blocked the road in front of Anugayalaya’s office, which is also a road leading to Loreto Convent.

The local residents and the staffs cleared and made a walkable passage for the school children to walk down to their school. They covered the landslide (fig 1.7). Till 9 am, no local authorities neither the relief materials were available.

The reason behind this incident was drain blockage. The drain system was completely blocked as shown in fig. 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6. So, the drain water along with road/rain water started flowing/pouring down the slope causing landslide.

The authorities started to visit the site after 9:30 am. The Irrigation department came to take measurements then followed by the traffic officials. Assistant Engineer Mr Anup Das, Central Planning, GTA visited the site as well.

The Darjeeling municipality engineer department, Mr Prashant Rai (Head of the engineer department) visited the site. He informed his department workers to come and start cleaning up the debris. The workers started cleaning the road as seen in fig 1.8, 1.9 and 2.0. The clearance took till 1:30 pm in the afternoon. 

Amit Gurung
SaveTheHills
Darjeeling