Extreme rainfall event in Kalimpong district: 04/05Oct2025 ('Impact on Teesta Bazar')

The first photographic records of major flooding at Teesta Bazar is of the October 1968 disaster when extensive portions of the settlement were washed away by the Teesta River. The event also led to the collapse of the Andersen Bridge — a key river crossing at Teesta Bazar — reportedly as a result of the sudden failure of a landslide-dammed lake located further upstream.
Subsequent decades saw recurring flood impacts in the area. In October 2023, Teesta Bazar was severely affected by a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) originating from the upper Teesta basin. This event caused extensive damage along the Teesta valley and was documented in detail by SaveTheHills (STH).
In July 2024, the locality again experienced significant flooding. Despite detailed recommendations submitted by STH regarding necessary mitigation and risk-reduction measures following the 2023 event, most corrective actions remained unimplemented. Consequently, the warning issued in the 2024 report — “Failure to take timely corrective action will mean a repetition of this whole scenario once again in 2025” — was validated when a similar flood event reoccurred in October 2025.
This pattern underscores the urgent need for comprehensive and coordinated flood mitigation interventions at Teesta Bazar, including structural and non-structural measures, to prevent further recurrence of such disasters in the future.
As expected the town again experienced major floods during the deluge of 04/05/Oct2025. STH photographer Praveen Chhetri was available at site to record the event:

Submerged Darjeeling - Kalimpong road: Two women from Teesta bazar wistfully look at the flooded Kalimpong-Darjeeling road on 05Oct2025. 
I took the photo (below) from almost the same spot on the Teesta bridge in 2024 when the river had receded and the submerged homes alongside the road were visible.
This road passes thru Teesta bazar and every time it is flooded, we have to take a lengthy 6hr detour instead of the normal 2hrs to/from Darjeeling.

Drone image of the flooded Darjeeling-Kalimpong road at Teesta bazar on 05Oct2025

On 05Oct2025, the Teesta submerged this junction of NH10 and the road to/from Darjeeling (where motorcyclists have assembled). In the distant, the Teesta bridge linking Gangtok and Kalimpong is visible - the river is huge and stretches from one bank to the other.

Trees, stumps and debris were again dumped on the Darjeeling-Kalimpong road below the Teesta bridge by the floods of 05Oct2025.

Almost an annual event - flooded homes in Teesta bazar on 05Oct2025.

The Teesta flowing bank to bank on 05Oct2025. NH10 which connects Siliguri to Gangtok is blocked at Rabi Jhora which is a small flooded bridge on the right bank. This extreme event took place at the peak of festivities and Puja season with hundreds of vehicles choking the highways and roads. 

All photos (except one taken in 2024) by Praveen Chhetri @ Junkeri Studios, Kalimpong. My grateful thanks to Praveen (junkeristudio@gmail.com) for photographing the event as a historical record. 
Talking about historical records, I have a small story to recount  about the Teesta bazar👇

A walk back thru time

I was 17yrs old when the October 1968 disaster struck the Darjeeling–Sikkim Himalaya — 57 years ago now. About a week after 04Oct1968, my cousin, a friend, and I walked down to Teesta Bazar, where I took a few photographs with my father’s Zeiss Ikon bellows medium-format camera. Those photos, badly damaged over time, had long been missing until yesterday, when I stumbled upon them while rummaging through some old prints. Thanks to Praveen for scanning them — I’ve since worked on the images in Photoshop and an AI restoration tool and managed to recover four photos. Though still blurred and damaged, they now stand preserved for posterity, alongside those from Das Studio

The Andersen bridge after it was brought down by the Teesta during the 1968 flood. The blurry figures standing on the right are my cousin and friend.

Teesta bazar from the opposite bank. This area sustained a huge amount of damage including a petrol pump and all the equipment which were swept away by the rampaging Teesta. The remains of the Andersen bridge are still visible today.

Apologies for this image which is really bad - but still you can make out some damaged homes and a lot of scars which are landslides... this area is (I think) where Krishnagram now stands in Teesta bazar.

This part of Teesta bazar is where the community hall and the haat bazar stands today. You can distinctly see the road going up to Darjeeling and Peshoke in the upper right.

Praful Rao
savethehills@gmail.com

9475033744