The Oct 2023 Teesta Valley GLOF disaster gets its due recognition: An article published on the disaster in SCIENCE MAGAZINE

The GLOF sweeping past the Teesta bazar (W Bengal) on 04Oct2023. This drone photo by Praveen is certainly one of the most iconic images of a GLOF.

The SCIENCE MAGAZINE (https://www.science.org) is widely recognized as the world's most prestigious journal on science, publishing the very best in research across the sciences, with articles that consistently rank among the most cited in the world. It is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s oldest and largest general science organization.
Dr Ashim Sattar (IIT Bhubaneshwer) is a glaciologist who has done a huge amount of research on the South Lhonak glacial lake and had almost predicted accurately the GLOF which occurred on 03/04Oct2023. I have quoted extensively from his write up earlier in this blog and had the good fortune of meeting him at Chitrey, in the Teesta valley last year when he was enroute to Gangtok, Sikkim.

With Ashim (left) on 21Feb2024 at Chitrey

In our brief interaction, he mentioned he was working with many world experts on a paper on the 03/04Oct2023 Teesta Valley GLOF disaster which I daresay was all but ignored by government and the media even  though it was the largest GLOF disaster in the Himalayas in the recent past.
Since then I have personally had many interactions with him, shared photographs of the GLOF and affected areas and discussed the impact at the many places we had visited while recording the GLOF.
Even though I am unaware of the technical details of the mammoth work that Ashim and all the associated scientists have put in, I know getting it published in Science Magazine was another huge challenge and it took months of meticulous work by Ashim with literally many emails being exchanged between all of us.
The full article published by SCIENCE MAGAZINE yesterday, is here (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads2659)
In addition, Dr Dave Petley, VC Univeristy of Hull (UK) who is one of the co - authors has published his synopsis of the whole article - which is here (https://eos.org/thelandslideblog/sikkim-glof-october-2023)
My grateful thanks to Dr Ashim Sattar and all the eminent scientists who devoted so much time and effort towards this article.

Praful Rao
SaveTheHills
savethehills@gmail.com
9475033744

Why we should tread softly in the Himalayas...Pakyong, Sikkim, Nov2017

While the sinking of Joshimath, in large part due to human activities has caught the attention of the nation, I was witness to a similar event in another Himalayan state,ie Sikkim caused by anthropogenic activity which has now been largely forgotten.

Pakyong airport, 30 km from Gangtok at an elevation 4590ft (1399m)was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24Sept 2018. It was constructed by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) at an estimated cost of Rs 605 crore and was touted be an "engineering marvel" for its soil reinforcement and slope stabilization techniques keeping in view the altitude it was built at. 

After inauguration, only Spicejet operated a Bombardier Q -400 on the Kolkata -Pakyong route and under Visual Flight Rules since there no navigational aids or radar at the airport which will permit IFR flight.

Building the airport caused severe distress to the slopes around the airport and the landslide problem in the area has been adequately documented by Dr Dave Petley in his blog here.

I visited Pakyong on 05Nov2017 and met some local contacts who said almost 164 buildings/homes large and small, located below and around the runway had been damaged due to the sinking caused by the airport construction.  

I have placed images of buildings being dismantled and other images of Pakyong airport below:

 

I

I took these photos in Nov2017 and after that I have not visited Pakyong. 

What I know from media reports is that adequate compensation has been doled out to all the affected people there so there is silence from that end.
What I am not sure is about the health of the mountain because I believe the runway is under repair/ extension.

No flights have operated to/from Pakyong for some time now, for reasons unknown to me.

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

Pathing landslides gets a full feature on Prof Dave Petley's Landslide Blog

Prof Dave Petley's Landslide Blog is perhaps the most widely read 'online magazine' on Landslide Hazards in the world.
So it is wonderful that our reports on the Pathing Landslides as well as our two videos have been featured in a full length post on his blog yesterday.
The link is here
Meanwhile as I write the rockfalls and the landslide at Pathing continue relentlessly; the good thing is that the villagers and their livestock have shifted out of harms way even though their homes are still being pulverized by rocks.
I hope our efforts in highlighting their plight (and the plight of so many other rural communities which are affected by this very under-rated disaster form) will help them in some way.

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

STH activities: IMI's Sustainable Mountain Development Summit (SMDS) IX and the Disaster Risk Reduction Session

The Sustainable Mountain Development Summit (SMDS) is one of the flagship programs of IMI and SMDS IX along with the Youth Summit kicked off from Uttarakhand on 08Dec and ended on 14Dec2020. The 6 day event went off smoothly without any major technical hiccups or internet outages because the whole program was held virtually due to the pandemic.
The Darjeeling HImalaya Initiative which is the W Bengal State chapter of IMI was responsible for organizing and conduct of Disaster Risk Reduction session on Day -2 of the summit and we had as our main speakers an amazing line up of resource persons:

The Facebook link of the event is here

Many thanks to the resource persons and speakers during our session.Thanks also to Roshan our incomparable compere and Shreya for helping out resolve the technical issues. Our thanks to the young and vibrant IMI people from the Secretariat and of course our gratitude to the audience.

Praful Rao
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling - Kalimpong Himalaya

An event of Note : Call of the Mountains (on 30May2020 at 3.00pm IST)

The Darjeeling Himalaya Initiative (DHI) which is the W Bengal state chapter of Integrated Mountain Initiative (IMI) observes 30May each year as 'Call of the Mountains' day where we hold a day's event on an environmental issue of import for us living in the mountains.
This year we have invited Prof Dave Petley of Sheffield University, one of the foremost authorities on Landslide Hazards for a discourse on 'Landslide Risk in the Himalayas' 

Details
Date/time : 30May2020/ 3.00pm - 4.30pm IST
Platform : ZOOM
Link : https://bit.ly/36yBBJM

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The ZOOM workshop conducted beteen 3.00pm and 4.20pm went off wonderfully well with approx 74 people attending. Link is placed below:



Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Global Fatal Landslide Database: Dave Petley