About politics and managing disasters - Davis Automatic Weather Station (AWS) distribution in Sikkim and Sub-Himalayan West Bengal (Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts)

SaveTheHills has long recognised the critical need for real-time weather data in the Himalayas, where conditions can shift rapidly and with little warning. Since 2016, we have operated Davis Vantage Pro2 AWS units at two locations and have consistently highlighted the need for a denser network of such stations across the mountain region.
Kalimpong and Darjeeling are two adjoining hill districts of West Bengal, while Sikkim—though a separate state—forms a contiguous stretch of the same Himalayan terrain. In fact, according to Google Earth, my home in Tirpai, Kalimpong (West Bengal), is just 2.185 km from Melli in South Sikkim.

So I was rather surprised when I read this article in papers today about the inspection of 67 AWS in Sikkim state:

All 67 Davis AWS units in Sikkim were supplied by the Government—specifically the Department of Science and Technology (DST)—and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is now working with DST to upgrade and overhaul these stations.

In contrast, the hill areas of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts have only five Davis AWS, all installed through the independent efforts of NGOs and private individuals. These units are operated and maintained entirely by us, without any government support. 
The locations of AWS:-
1. Kalimpong (operated by SaveTheHills)
2. Kurseong (operated by SaveTheHills)
3. Pedong (operated by Bal Suraksha Abhiyan)
4. Todey  (operated by Bal Suraksha Abhiyan)
5. St Paul's School, Darjeeling (operated by the school)

One Davis Vantage Pro 2 AWS was installed in Gorubathan (W Bengal) by the Kalimpong district administration some years ago but has steadfastly remained defunct thereafter.

Comparative Size and Population of Sikkim and Darjeeling/Kalimpong.

Size of Hill areas of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts: 2,478.31 km²
Population of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts: 875,713.
Size of Sikkim: 7,096 km²
Population of Sikkim: 610,577
                                                                                - source ChatGPT

SaveTheHills had also reached out to the district administration for support in expanding AWS coverage in Darjeeling and Kalimpong. A formal letter to the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) was drafted on 30 December 2021 and handed over at the time to a senior party official. The letter is reproduced below:

The letter has not seen the light of day since then and we in Darjeeling/Kalimpong continue to work with only 5 Davis AWS.

If political differences lead to such uneven treatment of regions that share the same geography, face identical hazards, and are equally vulnerable, then our ability to manage disasters becomes severely compromised. This is especially troubling in the Himalayas, where the landscape is far more fragile and exposed to multiple, overlapping hazards.

Praful Rao,
savethehills@gmail.com
9475033744

  

(Lack of) Rainfall Data of March 2025 of some towns in Darjeeling - Sikkim Himalaya

 

All data from IMD

 

Sikkim, particularly North Sikkim, typically receives more winter and pre-monsoon precipitation than Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts. This is largely due to western disturbances that the reach higher latitudes, bypassing Darjeeling and Kalimpong.
However, this year, the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts also experienced an unusual lack of significant pre-monsoon thunderstorm activity. The absence of moisture incursion from the Bay of Bengal contributed to this anomaly.
The resulting dry weather in the lower latitudes has led to severe water shortages in Darjeeling and Kalimpong, coinciding with peak tourist season. Furthermore, the dry conditions have caused numerous forest fires along the Teesta Valley, generating pollution and haze due to smoke.

Drone image of a forest fire in the Teesta Valley (in Sikkim, NE of Melli town) on 04Apr2025 at  9.20pm. These fires are a daily happening all along the valley where tinder dry vegetation catches fire or is set on fire.

The reason why we have not published rainfall data after Oct2024 is that in the ensuing drought like condition, there was absolutely no rainfall and as such no data to publish. Unfortunately, this is becoming the trend in our precipitation pattern.

Praful Rao
SaveTheHills
savethehills@gmail.com
9475033744

The Firefighting of Darjeeling’s waste problem

Toxic fumes and smoke billows from tons of garbage and waste which are on fire at Darjeeling town's solid waste dumping ground or 'chute' in Feb2024. Like most Himalayan towns, Darjeeling simply believes in removing the waste from the town and offloading the untreated waste in a remote area (Photo Credit: Zero Waste Himalaya)

On the night of January 28, 2024, the waste dump of Darjeeling caught fire once again. Yet again, the Darjeeling night skies glowed orange, spreading panic among residents close by. It was not even a year back on June 14 2023, when a similar fire had simmered over 4 months and it had taken the Darjeeling Municipality over 60000 litres of water transported through tankers to douse the fire. The alarming situation created a buzz in the media, provided a bit of opportunity for mud slinging and blame games, but as the fire went out, all conversation around it also died down.

What must have been a remote location during the the days of the British Raj is now Amar Jyoti Gram, Municipal Ward No 17 of Darjeeling town and this is where the town's solid waste continues to be dumped. We visited the site on 01Feb2024 - the fire was still burning, despite being doused with huge quantities of water. (Photo credit - STH)

The dumping site going ablaze undoubtedly draws much needed public attention to the problem but fails to shake the town into solving it. Let's not forget that the smoke from the smouldering dump has been contributing to Darjeeling’s polluted winter air for over a decade now (Darjeeling Burning!). All of the unsegregated waste dumped in the chute has been burning relentlessly, with the fumes enveloping the town in its toxic shroud. Living in such toxic and hazardous situations has somewhat become the norm for Darjeeling every winter, and this is highly concerning.

The chute on fire on 01Feb2024. The decaying organic matter produces flammable gases (mainly methane) which after catching fire continues to burn despite best efforts to extinguish the fire. (Photo credit - STH)

In response, Darjeeling, like so many other places, has quite literally been firefighting to keep the problem at bay. What is needed are longer term vision and strategies grounded on community ownership and individual actions. While waste profiles and demographics have undergone massive shifts over the years, our management systems are struggling to catch up with the changes. With mindless consumerism fueled by social media and the frenzy of online shopping, we are buying unnecessarily, and our waste piles are increasing by the day. Single use products that are non recyclable make up a bulk of the trash from our households that ultimately end up in the dump site mixed with biodegradable waste. (What Lies Beneath! The Truth about Darjeeling’s Waste)

The waste dump lies directly below Darjeeling town and the wind takes the toxic fumes, miasma and smoke directly into the town. Seen here in the foreground are built up areas in the dump site and new houses being built there; in the distance are Singmari and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute complexes. (Photo Credit - STH)

Individually and as bulk generators, our waste footprint has increased dramatically, but our responsibility towards managing our own waste has remained pitifully low. It is a struggle for local bodies to collect the monthly garbage fee to manage the waste we generate. Our houses may be tiled to the ceiling, but the simple practice of waste segregation is still an unthinkable chore for most of us. Segregation at source is the fundamental step to a sustainable waste management system. Without community support and ownership, long term strategic solutions will always remain elusive.

The urban setting around the 'chute' today. (Photo credit - STH)

It is time for all of us to take cognizance of the hazardous conditions we are creating and take concrete steps to resolve it. Zero Waste Himalaya, has developed the 8 steps strategy to move towards sustainable waste management which requires ownership and participation from the community as well as strong commitment and vision from elected bodies. -

1. Build citizen action and stewardship - Waste is everyone's business as all of us are
producers and managers of waste. To have a successful waste management system,
it needs community ownership and stewardship. This can be brought about by
participatory planning processes, ownership of action and continual community
engagement and knowledge building.

2. Adopt decentralised waste management at ward level or ward clusters- Decentralised waste management reduces the volume of waste to be managed, and makes the task of monitoring easier. Material recovery facilities can be developed for waste sorting and storage, with linkage to recyclers. With the goal of reducing landfill load, only ultimate discards should be sent to the landfill.

3.Implement segregation of waste at source - This is already mandated by the Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016 that stipulates segregating into biodegradable, non-biodegradable and hazardous.

4. No biodegradables to landfill - If segregation is practised, then the biodegradable waste can be managed separately. There are options for home composting, community composting or bulk composting.

5.Target bulk generators - Bulk generators such as hotels, restaurants, hostels, offices, markets generate waste in large volumes. They have to be targeted and their waste managed separately. SWM Rules mandates bulk generators to manage their biodegradable waste and not send it to the landfill. Food, vegetable and meat waste can be managed as animal feed, compost or through biomethanation. 

6. Strengthen and expand single use plastics ban - Increasing plastic production and consumption is the root of the Himalayan waste crisis and reduction of this waste is the real solution. This reduction of plastic can be achieved with the implementation of single use plastic ban that India has enacted since 1 July 2022 but a number of these banned SUP are still used in Darjeeling. For the Himalayan region, there is a need to expand this ban to other single use plastics like bottled water (especially the tiny one) that will enable the reduction of plastic waste to the landfill.

7. Invest in pilots (wards / institutions) - Pilots are a good way to showcase the immense possibilities as well as learn while doing. This can be a tool for others to learn and scale up from.

8. Invest in capacity building of all stakeholders (elected representatives / CBOs / Officials) The changing profile of waste has meant that traditional waste management systems of rolling down the hill and burning proves toxic and there is a need to shift the narrative in policy and practice. Leading by example is one of the most powerful actions thus elected representatives and community gatekeepers can be powerful agents of positive community change. A Zero Waste Learning Center can also be planned in a convenient location which can act as a constant source of learning on waste management for all stakeholders. 

 

Beyond all this, companies that are sparing no cost to send their plastics up the mountains need to be held accountable for managing it or taking it back. There is a need to close the plastic tap, especially those that are unnecessary, single-use and having no solutions. This is already enshrined in the Extended Producer Responsibility Rules 2022 under the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 and this needs to be implemented in the mountain states. (Plastic crisis in the mountains: Will extended producer responsibility bring in change).

Zero Waste Himalaya is a platform of organizations, institutions and individuals working on issues of sustainable waste management and advocating for effective producer responsibility in the mountains. 

Write to us at zerowastesikkimdarjeeling@gmail.com


Follows us on FB / Instagram: @zerowastehimalaya

Priya Shrestha
Roshan Rai
www.thehimalayancleanup.in

 

Heavy rains in the Darjeeling-Kalimpong region on 08/09Aug2023.

The meteorological conditions which led to the heavy rains are given below:

The satellite images of 08/09August2023 which were posted in our What's App group are shown:

In Kalimpong, the rains started at around 7pm and continued through the night even though the intensity was less around midnight. The rainfall intensity graph from a Davis Vantage Pro2 AWS at my home in Tirpai, Kalimpong is given below:

Unlike the localized rains of 01Aug2023, rainfall on 09Aug occurred over larger area  and included the towns of Darjeeling and Kurseong. The rainfall distribution map is given below:

The heavy rains 01Aug2023 (165.4mm) and that of 08Aug2023 (131.2mm) together add up to 296.6mm against a monthly rainfall in Aug of 495.2mm - as such we received 59.89% of our monthly rain in just two days.
Landslides
Landslides were reported in
Kalimpong - Echay bustee
Darjeeling - Rimbick
Darjeeling- Pul Bazar

Praful Rao
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya
9475033744
savethehills@gmail.com

SaveTheHills activities in 2021 - landslide surveys

One of the most important roles of STH over the years is to document landslide occurrences in our region so that this information though not technical in nature is available to scholars, government departments and others.
Unfortunately, due to the lockdowns and restrictions imposed during COVID peaks we could not carry out these surveys in landslide affected areas very far from Kalimpong however, our Whats App group 'Hazard Alerts' proved extremely useful as a crowd sourced information hub where people reported landslides and heavy rain as they occurred and we were able to record these events in our database.

03Jan2021 : A visit to Mungpel village

See here for details

17April2021: Reporting a lightning strike
Hanuman Mandir, Kalimpong

04Jul2021: Landslide survey around Kalimpong town

22Jul2021: Survey around areas NE of Kalimpong town ie Algarah town

Algarah is satellite town located approx 15km NE of Kalimpong. It has long had a serious  subsidence problem and each year a central part of the town literally sinks. We surveyed the road to Algarah  (which has numerous subsidence zones) and the areas in the vicinity.

31Jul2021: Survey of landslide affected areas in Kalimpong after extreme rainfall of 29Jul

We had some of the heaviest rainfall of the monsoons in July 2021 and that resulted in a large number of landslides in Kalimpong on 30Jul2021. We surveyed the affected areas.

This 👆 is undoubtedly one of the largest landslide in the entire Darjeeling - Kalimpong district.

06Aug2021: Berrick dara (NH10)

After a report on the local media (Kalimpong TV) that a large landslide at Berrick Dara on NH10, was causing instability and cracks to the homes of Berrick village we made a visit to the place on 06Aug2021.
Berrick on NH10 has had a long standing problem with landslides.

25Sep2021: Landside Survey in Kurseong with GSI Team

STH member Mr Sachin Tamang from Kurseong (Darjeeling district) was with GSI team surveying landslides along NH110 at Sukna, Tindharia, Pagla Jhora and Kurseong

02Oct2021 : Landslide Survey in Kalimpong district with GSI Team

I have participated in many landslide surveys with the GSI over the years and it was a pleasure to be with geologists Sumit and Ankur  during their visit to Kalimpong district.

21Oct2021: Surveying NH10 from Teesta to Rangpo and back via Munsong

28Oct2021: Surveying the landslides along NH717A

The deluge of 18/19Oct2021 caused a large number of landslides along the NH717A, a highway being constructed as an alternate to NH10. 

18Nov2021: Fatal landslide at Darjeeling SDO's quarters.

The landslide which damaged part of the SDO Darjeeling quarters (which lies above  the  District Magistrate's office and below Raj Bhavan) occurred on 19Oct2021. The watchman (chowkidar) died when he was buried by the slide. 

 

Many of the surveys are covered in more detail in this blog (pl check blog for the month and date).
Otherwise thanks to Ms Shreya Gurung of STH, we have a data base of landslides where we have recorded the coordinates/rainfall/ damage caused by the landslide. They are here

Landslide catalogue

Landslide Survey on NH717A done on 28Oct2021

Praful Rao
SaveTheHills
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalayas

Hyperactive WDs and unusual (heavy) snowfall in our region 04-05Feb2022

As forecast by IMD, we had bumper to bumper Western Disturbances sweeping in from the west from Jan till now. This along with moisture incursion from the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea resulted in rain, hail and snowfall in our region on 04-05Feb2022.

Praful Rao
SaveTheHills
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

STH activities : Use of cell phones and social media in disaster communication - our experience in the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya with a Whats App Group 'HAZARD ALERTS 1&2'

 

I have always been fascinated by the digital platform and its ability to record and disburse information quickly, accurately and efficiently to a large number of people and so I started this blog in Sep 2007 when SaveTheHills (STH) was formed. The blog has till date 375,052 hits & has a record of almost 12 years of landslide as well as rainfall activity of the region.
I have since made STH accounts in virtually all other major social media platforms ie Facebook, Instagram and Twitter though I have never got around to using them.
What I have used, however and which has become the STH flagship is our Whats App (WA) group 'HAZARD ALERTS' or HA which was created approx 5 years ago with the intent of disbursing heavy rainfall warnings and alerts to common people so that they become more aware and perhaps pass on the warnings to others as well.
I am glad to say that HA has become a very successful and disciplined crowd sourced platform and a knowledge bank in our region on many environmental issues of the Himalayas and messages and warnings in HA are read by a large number of people in our area even though WA only allows a maximum of 250 members.
Today HA has 244 members of which approx 25 or so are PhDs who can throw light on issues or queries which we layman have. Then we have a large number of NGOs and media people who not only pass warnings to others but also serve as vital communication links to inform about hazards, landslides, highway status and so on. We also have a large number of government officials who also participate in crowd source knowledge disbursement and information and last of all we have the lay people for whom HA was actually formed - so that they are better informed and aware of impending hazards, heavy rainfall periods and take action. All in all HA has been a wonderful experiment which has been very successful.
Since we were about to run out of space, we have formed Hazard Alerts 2  (HA2) which has approximately 50 members till now - mostly students. All posts from HA are simultaneously posted in HA2.
In Feb2021, we (my STH colleague Dr Nima Doma Lama and I) made a 5 min 'lightning presentation' on HAZARD ALERTS  for SHEAR which is available on YOUTUBE here. Do have a listen and we would be more than happy to share our experience with you.

Praful Rao
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Aug2021 Rainfall data of some towns in the Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalayas

 

Most stations had excess rainfall in Aug2021 even though the overall rainfall from the beginning of the monsoons till August end showed deficiencies in several districts.

Landslide occurrences for the month of August (and the other monsoon months) have been compiled in our presentation here

PS: Deep regrets for the delay in this report - it is just that STH uses another social media platform ie What's App 'Hazard Alerts 1 & 2' for reporting weather, rainfall, landslide activity and so on.
What's App is an extremely popular social networking tool in this part of the world and STH has been making use of it extensively for the last 4 years as a medium to report on disaster related information.

Shreya Gurung
Praful Rao
SaveTheHills
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling - Sikkim Himalayas