Community awareness workshop (06Feb2010) : "Can we be better prepared to deal with Landslides in the monsoons this year?"

The monsoons of 2009 began with Cyclone AILA smashing through parts of Darjeeling district and continued with unexpected & sudden peaks of high intensity rainfall which caused landslides and destruction for the rest of the monsoon season (all available in blog). 
Now with the monsoons of 2010 just about 3 months away, it is time to ponder whether we learnt anything from the devastation last year?
With this in mind STH along with Centre for Mountain Dynamics (CMD - an NGO working with farmers in Kalimpong subdivision) organized a joint workshop to discuss how we could be better prepared to deal with the monsoons this year. Some 53 community representatives from all over Kalimpong sub-division attended the meeting and over a 2 hour session, the rudiments of Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) were discussed. Members of the rural communities actively participated and related their experiences during the proceedings which was moderated by Mr Yusuf Simick of CMD. Ms Kakoli Chowdhury (and her daughter) from Darjeeling were also present in the meeting and we hope to organize a similar meeting there with her.
The meeting was summarized by the octogenarian Mr PR Pradhan who noted that this was the first meeting that he had attended which was based solely on better ways of living with a disaster form (landslides) which was increasing in intensity and frequency each year.

Praful Rao

Documentary film on Landslides

Nine final year students of the Dept of Mass Communication, St Joseph's College, North Point - Darjeeling (which included students from Darjeeling, Sikkim and Bhutan) were here in  Kalimpong on 27Oct2009 - they are working on producing a documentary film on "Landslide Hazards in the Darjeeling district". Besides doing an exhaustive interview on the subject, they discussed the causes and effects of landslides with STH. The documentary is being being made for the  Montage College Film festival at the college on 28Nov2009.

We intend to collaborate with the Mass Communication Dept of the college during the ensuing monsoons with the intention of producing a high quality documentary on landslides

Praful Rao

Our 20th Awareness Program :13Aug2009 Army School, Kalimpong

Besides acting as a pressure group to have landslide prevention work initiated, one of STH's primary roles has been to raise awareness about landslides. To this end, we have carried out extensive work amongst students who are our primary target and then amongst a varied cross-section of people which includes University lecturers, Police and Army officers, villagers and urban folk.
I am glad to say that 2 years and 20 programs down the line, awareness has become so much more acute here and not a week goes by without some sort of activity taking place about landslide hazards.
In the future, we have some big programs looming up plus an Inter-School Marathon being organized with the theme "SaveThe Hills" in the next week.

Praful Rao