The new norm? - AGAIN - sudden, heavy, short duration rainfall in Kalimpong - 20Jun2023

Unlike 17Jun2023, we had a 'RED' warning in place for heavy rain in our region, however it remained dry thru the day with heavy clouds.
There was no thundering or lightning to indicate convective clouds moving in or building up over Kalimpong. Cloud image of the period is shown below:

Heavy rains started at around 7.00pm with intensities of approx 70-80mm/hr. It continued to rain heavily with intensities of over 40mm/hr for another two hours.

With the two rainfall events of 17Jun and 20Jun2023, I was reminded of something which I had read a long time ago, written by late Dr Subhas Ranjan Basu and Dr Sunil Kumar De (NEHU).
I reproduce it below:
'With rapid urbanization and a phenomenal growth of tourism, the Darjiling and Sikkim Himalayas have been experiencing an unprecedented rise in population since independence. Consequently, pressure on land is increasing with the gradual elimination of virgin forests. Unscientific and unplanned usages of land coupled with vulnerable geological structure and high rainfall have led to the establishment of vicious cycle of soil erosion and landslides. During or after every monsoon, landslides create havoc in the Darjiling-Sikkim Himalayas
devastating human lives and properties. As a result the Darjiling-Sikkim Himalayas, one of the most densely populated tourist centers in such monsoon environments, is on the verge of an environmental catastrophe so that just one concentrated shower of 50 mm per hour could initiate landslides endangering innumerable local people and their properties.'
Link

24hrs rainfall of adjoining areas
Cooch Behar 130mm
Jalpai 84mm
Darjeeling 15mm
Gangtok 9.7mm

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

Commemorating Prof Leszek Starkel's interactions with STH in Darjeeling (21Nov2008) and Kalimpong (25Nov2009)

Prof Leszek Starkel (1931-2021) was a legend.
He was an eminent geomorphologist, a leading figure in Polish geomorphology over many decades and also a person of wide international reputation.
I came across him almost accidentally. Some one had given me a book by him on 'Rain,Landslides and Floods in the Darjeeling Himalaya' sometime in early 2008 and in it was his email address. So I shot off an email to him saying SaveTheHills was very interested in his work and would like to meet him if possible and promptly forgot about it, never expecting a reply.
Many months later I got a reply from the great man that he was arriving in Darjeeling in Nov2008 and I could actually meet him. I jumped at the offer and requested that he be our keynote speaker in a seminar on 'Landslide Hazards' we would organize in Darjeeling on his arrival.
He agreed and we organized what must be the first seminar on 'Landslide Hazards' in Darjeeling on 21Nov2008. A year later we organized another talk by him in Kalimpong on 25Nov2009 which was also our last since his visits to India stopped due to illness.
Later I found that he had been coming to India very regularly after the Oct 1968 disaster to study among other things the Ambootia landslides.
Prof Starkel passed away last year on 06Nov.
The images below are testimony to our brief but wonderful interaction with Prof Leszek Starkel.

STH finds a place in Prof Leszek Starkel's memoirs:

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

Reporting an extreme event in the Darjeeling - Sikkim Himalaya (05Aug-06Aug2020)

RAINFALL DATA (24hrs) in Darjeeling- Sikkim -06Aug2020
W Bengal
Kalimpong - 106, Darjeeling - 99.4, Kurseong - 13
Sikkim
Gangtok - 59.2, Khanitar -119.4, Mangan - 104.2, Singhik - 130.8, Gyalsing - 83.6, Damthang - 82
Much of the rain was very high intensity - and came down within a couple of hours

CLOUD IMAGE AND RAINFALL CHARACTERISTICS OF 05/06AUG2020

What is apparent from the above graph and the AWS chart is the intensity of the rainfall - which peaked within hours to an incredible 252mm/hr at Kalimpong resulting in massive volumes of surface runoff from paved areas of urban centres. Videos of torrents of water gushing into residential areas, shops and flooding streets in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Gangtok went viral. The intensity of the rain was ascribed to vertical buildup of the clouds - reaching well into the stratosphere with cloud top temps being -80 deg C.
While this sort of rainfall data for other towns is not available, similar scales of damage has been widely reported from Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sikkim.

IMPACT AND DAMAGE FROM THE STORM

WEST BENGAL

Kalimpong suffered a fatality wherein a heavily swollen stream during the downpour in Lamini Gaon, Chota Bhalukhop swept away a 10yr old boy. This area lies in the western face of the Kalimpong ridge line. The body was recovered 3 days later.
A bridge in Dungra village (which lies below the town, on the eastern face of Kalimpong town) was washed away in the deluge

Many subsidences and landslides were reported on NH10 which is a vital link from
Siliguri to Gangtok. Most occurred between Teesta bazar and Coronation bridge.

 

 

SIKKIM - River Rangeet's Rampage 

Rangeet river is the biggest tributary of the Teesta river originating partly in West Sikkim. Older residents of Legship a town on the banks of the river in W Sikkim, recall that the last time the river was in full spate was during the Oct 1968 disaster.

Special thanks to Mr Mukesh Sharma (Kalimpong) for his inputs and photos.

Praful Rao
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

 

Death in the Mountains (09May2017)

A thunderstorm in the morning of 09May2017 struck a huge region as can be seen in the satellite image below. In the Darjeeling-Sikkim region, the rainfall was not intense during the storm but associated winds at around 0900hrs IST, knocked down several trees on National Highway10 (NH10) which links Siliguri with Gangtok .
One of the trees crashed directly onto the driver's cabin of a truck plying on the highway at Melli, killing him instantly.
This is first death due to hydro-meteorological causes in the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya in 2017.

Rainfall at Kalimpong on 09May2017: 24mm

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling -Sikkim Himalayas

Earthquake report: 27Mar2017, NE of Kalimpong

Date of Occurence:	27/03/2017
Time:	03:12:09 HRS(IST)
Intensity:	SLIGHT
Magnitude:	4.6
Depth:	10 KM
Epicentre:	Lat. 27.3°N Long.88.6°E
Region:	EAST SIKKIM

 As per the above report the intensity is 'Slight' but mark my words, we were jolted out of bed in Kalimpong by a strong but momentary shake  at approx 3.15am which knocked off the power supply for about 20 mins. The epicenter was 26.1km NE of Kalimpong, near Pakyong.

5hrs later at 8.10am, we have not received any report of casualties or damage.

Praful Rao,

Kalimpong district,

Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Lucky number 7 : STH's 7th anniversary, this week.

This is our 7th year and considering the fact that the South Westerly monsoon has been mild  in SHWB (Sub Himalayan West Bengal) and Sikkim Himalaya this year, we should consider ourselves lucky. That said, below are some of our accomplishments over the years :

Achievements

• STH now has three documentary films based on landslide hazards. In 2009 we worked with the mass communications department of St.Josephs's College, Darjeeling and then in 2010 we made two documentaries, one with the Development and Educational Communcations Unit (DECU) of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and another with the Magic Lantern Foundation.                                                                                               

                                   

• As part of our effort to make communities aware, STH has now participated in and conducted more than 80 awareness programs/seminars and workshops in schools, rural areas and universities.

• In our Stormwatch series (since 2009) STH has reported the development and tracks of all major weather systems in the Bay of Bengal thanks to the IR imagery and information on several excellent websites using broadband internet; we sent out early warning emails when necessary.                                                                                                                                            
• We now have an automatic rain gauge in Mangan (North Sikkim) along with the three others in Kalimpong,Darjeeling and Kurseong. Monthly rainfall reports are published for these towns and few others (from www.imdaws.com) for those interested in the hydrology of this area.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
• Since 2007, most of the major landslides in the vicinity of the SHWB and Sikkim have been documented on our blog 'Visions of Hell' with probable cause and effect, in an effort to highlight the severity of this disaster form in this region. 


                                                              
• Members of STH met the honourable MP of Darjeeling Shri Jaswant Singh for the second time in 07Apr2013. In the discussion followed that day STH made certain suggestions and requests regarding the landslide sitiuation in the hills of Darjeeling which can be found here.                                                                                                                                                                                                 
• In Dec2012 , we had a senior geologist from the GSI (Geological Surveyof India)  Mr.Debashish Bhattacharya in Kalimpong for 10 days. It was our pleasure to have him with us whilst we did a recce of all the landslide sites in the vicinity of the Kalimpong Sub-division. Such visits if more regular will create a greater understanding of landslides and the hazards associated with them.                                                                              

      

• STH has also done a substantial amount of work in the field of CBDRM (Community Based Disaster Risk Management), in some of the major landslide prone areas in Kalimpong ( Chibbo/ Pashyor, Dumsi pakha , Dhobi Dara).
  Having watched the response to the 18Sep2011 Sikkim earthquake and the recent Uttarakhand disaster, we will have to intensify our work with the communities since they would largely have to cope with future disasters on their own at least for a limited time period.

            

                                   

• We successfully imported 15,000 saplings of non-aromatic Vetiver grass (very effective at controlling soil erosion ) and distributed it amongst 15 NGOs in the district.The results have been quite positive with 60% survival rate and we hope to go in for a much larger plantation in landslide prone areas in the Kalimpong sub-division in the future.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
• We have worked with the NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) in conducting and coordinating training workshops (see here and here). Recently, we also did a workshop for the WB SDRF ( State Disaster Response Force ) in which we covered causes and effects of landslides, followed by field visit to landslide affected areas in Kalimpong.                                                            

           

• In 2009 STH won the Manthan award ( for best practices in e-Content and Creativity ) which includes all SAARC countries. This year we've taken a step further by being the only NGO from India to be listed among the Six finalists in InterAction's  " FEDEX Award for Innovations In Disaster Preparedness". On 12Sep2013 we took part in a webinar in which all six finalists gave short presentations on their innovation and how it benefits the targeted community, excerpts from that webinar can be found here.                                                                
   
• Our blog "Visions of Hell" has more than 570 posts, has been viewed more than 101,020 times by a world wide audience and is a mammoth resource and a historical archive on landslide disasters in the Darjeeling- Sikkim Himalaya.
  All data and material on our blog is available free of cost for non-commercial use.

Though the task ahead is daunting, STH is slowly inching towards its principal objective which is the prevention, mitigation and management of landslide hazards in the Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalaya.
By enhancing public / government awareness and building capacity we can increase the resilience of our mountain communities towards landslide disasters and learn to live better with a disaster form which is as old as the mountains. 

Rohan Rao,

Kalimpong,

Dist-Darjeeling,

rohan.rao1313@gmail.com 

Rainfall data Darjeeling district and Sikkim: August 2013

August 2013 saw a flurry of activity in the Bay of Bengal with a number of low pressures forming. The low pressure reported just south of Kolkata by IMetD on 19Aug2013 caused moisture bearing clouds to move towards the Darjeeling Sikkim Himalaya resulting in the "Hurricane" in Darjeeling between 22:00 hrs and 00:00 hrs that night.

Strangely, even though the bay was swamped by low pressure systems in August 2013 , the Darjeeling Sikkim Himalaya and most of the North East still remained deficient in rain. Most of the low pressures that formed traced a North Westerly path giving excessive rain to most of central India and Rajasthan (shown above). 

No fatalities were caused by landslides in August 2013

September is when the SW monsoon slowly retreats from the Indian sub-continent, nonetheless from this month onwards STH will also include rainfall data from Siliguri and a few other stations in our monthly rainfall report for those interested in the hydrology of this area.   

Rohan Rao,

Kalimpong,

Dist-Darjeeling,

Email-rohan.rao1313@gmail.com

Image of the day (26Sep2011)

48hr rainfall statistics of Darjeeling
26Sep2011 - 44mm
25Sep2011 - 37mm

Impact on Education
Since the landslide makes the school, St Joseph's School, North Point,  virtually unapproachable by taxis and conventional transport, the administration has declared an extended Puja festival vacation from today (26Sep2011) until 17Oct201.
Mt Hermon School, in the same area, is another institution which will decide on whether they should close early.


Praful Rao

Photo credit : Mr Mohan Lama (Darjeeling)