STH Activity : Seminar on 'Development paradigm in the Mountains : a case study of Darjeeling and Kalimopng districts' (09Jan2018)

Referring our earlier blog
Some of the key take-aways from the seminar are :-

• Small towns and hamlets in the districts are urbanizing at a phenomenal rate, often in an unplanned manner.
• As they do so, the industries viz educational vocations, tourism, construction which are replacing traditional means of livelihood (main agro-based work) are more vulnerable to disaster.
• The study clearly showed the huge growth of human settlements and expansion of the developmental activities (such as road construction) along steep slopes or in the vicinity of landslide areas which results in a net increase of disaster risk in these regions.
• There is a need for landslide hazard zonation maps where available to be made public and easily accessible so as to incorporate this into the planning process.
• In the final analysis, there is an urgent need to better manage development activities in the mountains to reduce disaster risk.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong District,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Focus on CHIBO- PASHYOR landslide, Kalimpong district, Bengal (2017)

If I have a 'favorite' landslide, it's the CHIBO-PASHYOR landslide and the reason for it being my landslide of choice is :-

• It is located in the close vicinity of Kalimpong town and one can reach it within 15min on a vehicle.
  Not many researchers of landslides and certainly no high ranking govt official or VIP will travel 4 hrs on a bumpy, slushy road or much less, trek for 3 hrs to investigate a landslide. Most would much rather have a peek at the landslide from inside their SUV and go back to the comfort of a plush hotel to discuss the landslide on a laptop!
• The CHIBO-PASHYOR landslide is humungous - sufficiently big to impress researchers and VIPs alike yet not too dangerous during the dry season and winters, when most landslide research/survey is carried out.
  Yes! While flood surveys are conducted when a river is in full spate and large areas are submerged, most landslide surveys are generally done in the post monsoon (dry) period, when much of damage has been repaired or devastation/impact of landslides cannot be gauged fully. Too bad.
  SO while there are huge and dangerous landslides else where in this region, the CHIBO-PASHYOR slide remains my favorite and with the numerous scientific and other teams visiting it, I am glad that there is a tiny glimmer of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
  And all said and done, I am extremely glad that landslides in this region are getting due attention at last and that STH is able to play a minuscule role in all this.
 

 

Read more on:-
Colorado May2017, visit here
Prof Debasis Roy, Sep 2016 visit here
IIIT intervention in landslide Early Warning using rainfall threshold (FLaIR model)
Landslip project (see previous blog also)

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Research on the ‘Household and Community Risk due to natural hazards in Urbanizing Mountain Villages’ -by University of Colorado (Denver), College of Planning and Architecture (16May-04Jun2017)

Further to this

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

STH Activities with team of researchers from Colorado University (18May2017)

Prof Andrew Rumbach of Colorado Univ is an old Kalimpong hand (see 1 & 2) and is here for approx 3 weeks to research impact of urbanization and inherent risk to rural communities. He is accompanied by Mr Brian Sullivan and Ms. Izabela Petrykowska who are research assistants from the College of Architecture and Planning (CU), Denver
STH would be working with them in the Darjeeling/Kalimpong areas.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

STH activities : With delegates from the University of Colorado, Denver on study tour of 'Anthropogenic drivers to landslides in the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya' (14-26Jun2015)

Dr Andrew Rumbach of College of Architecture and Planning, Colorado University (Denver) has been an old friend of STH, having visited Kalimpong as many as 5 times over the years.
It was a pleasure to have him and 6 students from the University for two weeks doing research on 'Anthropogenic drivers to landslides in the Darjeeling - Sikkim Himalaya'. I am glad that the entire visit went off very well and as planned. It was a tremendous learning experience for us.
I would like to thank the STH volunteers who gave their time to make this visit a success and all my friends at Kalimpong, NBU, Kurseong, Darjeeling and Gangtok who readily volunteered to help us out as resource persons during our outstation and field visits.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

STH seminar on 'Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction' : 14Nov2014

                       

We would like to thank all those who travelled from distant shores and across rivers and valleys to attend our seminar - thanks to them the seminar went off wonderfully well.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling