Photographic record of the impact of 04Oct2023 GLOF at Fidang and Sangkalang (Dzongu region of North Sikkim) -17Nov2023.

Our visit to survey disaster affected areas in North Sikkim on 17Nov2023, involved driving thru Dikchu then Fidang and Sankalang.
We have already reported on the impact of the GLOF and dam burst at Dikchu here. The impact of the disaster at Fidang and Sankalang is documented below:

FIDANG  (27 24 36.7 N 88 30 58.8 E) in Lower Dzongu.
Fidang  is a short distance from Dikchu and enroute to Sankalang (and Chungthang). Here two bridges to Lower Dzongu were swept away along with 5 homes (as per locals). Images of Fidang on 17Nov2023, when we were on our way to Sankalang are shown below.

The Mandarine Retreat, Fidang (Lower Dzongu) in better times

The Mandarine Retreat on 17Nov2023

Sangkalang  (27 30 34.4 N 88 31 34.8 E) Elev 768.8m
Sangkalang village lies in the Teesta valley, almost directly below Mangan (HQ of North SIkkim district) and is a vital place for road communications. Here the bridge got washed away and now one has to drive on the Teesta river bed and cross the river on two Bailey bridges constructed by the army engineers in order to reach Dzongu, and North Sikkim.

The bridge across the Teesta here was torn down by the river on 04Oct2023 at around 1.15pm even though the GLOF hit Sangkalang at around midnight.
Locals recall that the Teesta river filled the entire valley from bank to bank for around 9 hours and they felt the ground vibrate like in an earthquake. At least two labourers (of the BRTF) lost their lives and many homes and much construction material and equipment was also lost.
The green bamboo bridge was made and used by locals for ferrying materials and people across a swollen river.

A BRO (Border Roads Organization) worker crosses the Teesta on a makeshift bamboo bridge at Sangkalang.

These Bailey bridges constructed by army engineers, across two branches of the Teesta river at Sangkalang are the lifeline for those living in Dzongu, Chungthang and North Sikkim today but these bridges will be washed away in the first heavy rains in 2024.(Drone photo by Praveen)

As such the BRO is frantically reconstructing a new bridge at the same spot where the old bridge was swept away on 04Oct2023. It is a race against time.

The terrifying force of nature is evident from the above photo. Steel rods from a construction structure have been bent and contorted as if they were limp noodles.

A signboard at the spot where the Sangkalang bridge was swept away - it seems a little bizarre now that Sikkim Urja dam itself is non-existent.

We met Basant Pradhan, a business man who lives close to where the old bridge was in Sangkalang. Basant vacated his home when it started shaking during the floods and there was a massive noise. He lost the ground floor of his home and was repairing what he could. He said Sikkim Urja Limited, the dam owners should compensate his losses.

Drone images (by Praveen) of Sangkalang on 29Dec2022 (Left) and of almost the same area when we transited through Sangkalang on our way to Chungthang 17Nov2023 (Right). Please note how broad the river bed has become after the GLOF event.

Drone images (by Praveen) of the Annual Lepcha Fair at Sangkalan on 29Dec2022 (Left) and of the same area when we transited through on our way to Chungthang on 17Nov2023 (Right). Please note the huge sand and sludge on the river bed after the GLOF event.
The Lepcha people of this area lost a heritage museum here, their fair grounds and several forest guest houses were also lost in the floods.
In addition, many locals lost orange orchards which were destroyed by the GLOF.

The Power Station for 1200MW Sikkim-Urja Stage III dam which burst at Chungthang on 04Oct2023 is located close to Sangkalang.

The Power Station (27 31 35.3 N 88 32 31.2 E) Elev 831.9m for the Sikkim Urja dam was also non functional and the bridge to the power station had been swept away by the GLOF. We saw a small band of workers on the opposite bank who had crossed over on a ropeway.

We stayed over night at Dzongu and started for Chungthang at 4.30am next morning. We will cover that in our next blogpost.

My thanks for all who helped.

Praful Rao
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya
savethehills@gmail.com
9475033744
with
Praveen Chhetri
Junkeri Studios,
Kalimpong.
9733185815

 

Closing Oct2019 with a bang : 3 Cyclones in the region

Oct 2019 for Kalimpong and Darjeeling districts has been dry. We are almost -60% in the monthly rainfall. Nevertheless, there has been plenty of weather activity elsewhere in the country with peninsular India and the western coast receiving plenty of rain.
As the curtains came down on Oct, we have 3 active storms in our region as shown above.

Update on 03Nov2019

Update on 05Nov2019
Caught in a pincer movement by two storms

Update on 10Nov2019

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

An interview with the Father of Landslide Hazards (India) : Dr RK Bhandari

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Monsoon 2018 synopsis

Monsoon 2018 report is here

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

STH Activities (18/19Jan2017) : Participating in Project 'LANDSLIP' and an awareness program with Colby College (USA)

In the bottom slide (with Colby College) STH President is 1 and Prof Roy 2.

An excerpt from the Telegraph on Project 'Landslip' is reproduced below :-

"Darjeeling, Jan. 19: An international science consortium has picked Darjeeling in north Bengal and the Nilgiris in south India to test a new mechanism for landslide risk reduction through better assessment, early warning systems, and improved community preparedness.
Scientists from India, Italy, and the UK plan to combine terrain geology with weather data to improve their understanding of landslide dynamics and use that information for risk assessment and alert local communities to potential hazard zones.
Tracts of the Darjeeling hills are highly vulnerable to landslides that have killed many people over the years. In July 2015, more than 40 people died or went missing in landslides across the hills. Some areas of eastern Sikkim will also be included in the project.
The scientists caution that their four-year project, funded by the UK's Natural Environment Research Council, the Department for International Development, through the Science for Humanitarian Emergencies and Resilience programme, does not seek to predict landslides.
"First and foremost, we are not predicting landslides. What we are doing is looking at and collecting information on landslide hazards," said Helen Reeves, the director of science for engineering geology with the British Geological Survey.
The Geological Survey of India, a major partner in the project, will provide the landslide data available for the area since 1899.
"One of the reasons for choosing this area is that data availability, landslide susceptibility, and varied terrain conditions," said Saibal Ghosh, the director of GSI. "Tea gardens here, too, have maintained rainfall data for decades and it will also be useful."
Bruce Malamud, professor of natural and environmental hazards at King's College, London, said: "The project will look at a combination of things such as elevation, geology, and landslide susceptibility. We are basically saying there could be an elevated chance here, and a reduced chance there."
The scientists plan to generate early warning systems to disseminate potential hazard information among local communities. The Italian National Research Council has already developed a forecasting system that regularly alerts local governments.
The India project will also seek to involve district administrations to reach out to communities, although the medium of communication is yet to be determined. "We will look for what best suits the local communities," said Malamud. "Maybe, we could work out a system that could use text messages, social (media), smartphones, radio, or other wireless systems."
Scientists from India's Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, the UK Met Office, Newcastle University, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy, among other institutions are also collaborating on the project.
Praful Rao of Save the Hills, an NGO based in Kalimpong which is working on natural disasters, said: "The very fact that an international consortium is working on landslides in the region is a major development. This would lead to a better understanding and preparedness for risk reduction."
The project also plans to invite experts from Afghanistan to share experiences with regard to landslides."

Praful Rao,
Kalmpong,
Dist Darjeeling

Good news for the Darjeeling - Sikkim Himalaya - an Event of Note (18Jan2017, Darjeeling)

After a relatively quiescent Dec2016, I am glad that 2017 is opening up with a visit to Darjeeling by a high powered group of scientists from the UK, Italy and India and all working on landslides.

STH will be attending the seminar on 18Jan2017 at Darjeeling.
You can read more about LANDSLIP here

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

Monsoons 2015 progress and seasonal rainfall

Praful |Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

South Westerly Monsoons 2014 - advance and withdrawal

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

El Nino for dummies

From The Guardian
The global El Niño weather phenomenon, whose impacts cause global famines, floods – and even wars – now has a 90% chance of striking this year, according to the latest forecast released to the Guardian.

El Niño begins as a giant pool of warm water swelling in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, that sets off a chain reaction of weather events around the world – some devastating and some beneficial.

India is expected to be the first to suffer, with weaker monsoon rains undermining the nation’s fragile food supply, followed by further scorching droughts in Australia and collapsing fisheries off South America. But some regions could benefit, in particular the US, where El Niño is seen as the “great wet hope” whose rains could break the searing drought in the west.

What is El Niño

The knock-on effects can have impacts even more widely, from cutting global gold prices to making England’s World Cup footballers sweat a little more.

The latest El Niño prediction comes from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which is considered one the most reliable of the 15 or so prediction centres around the world. “It is very much odds-on for an event,” said Tim Stockdale, principal scientist at ECMWF, who said 90% of their scenarios now deliver an El Niño. "The amount of warm water in the Pacific is now significant, perhaps the biggest since the 1997-98 event.” That El Niño was the biggest in a century, producing the hottest year on record at the time and major global impacts, including a mass die-off of corals.

“But what is very much unknowable at this stage is whether this year’s El Niño will be a small event, a moderate event – that’s most likely – or a really major event,” said Stockdale, adding the picture will become clearer in the next month or two. “It is which way the winds blow that determines what happens next and there is always a random element to the winds.”

The movement of hot, rain-bringing water to the eastern Pacific ramps up the risk of downpours in the nations flanking that side of the great ocean, while the normally damp western flank dries out. Governments, commodity traders, insurers and aid groups like the Red Cross and World Food Programme all monitor developments closely and water conservation and food stockpiling is already underway in some countries.

Professor Axel Timmermann, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, argues that a major El Niño is more likely than not, because of the specific pattern of winds and warm water being seen in the Pacific. “In the past, such alignments have always triggered strong El Niño events,” he said.

El Niño events occur every five years or so and peak in December, but the first, and potentially greatest, human impacts are felt in India. The reliance of its 1 billion-strong population on the monsoon, which usually sweeps up over the southern tip of the sub-continent around 1 June, has led its monitoring to be dubbed “the most important weather forecast in the world”. This year, it is has already got off to a delayed start, with the first week’s rains 40% below average.

26Jun2014 update
a. Rainfall deficit for whole of India - 40%
b. Rainfall deficit for Central India only - 57%
(Source - NDTV)
Italics in the above article are mine.

Praful Rao,

Kalimpong,

Dist Darjeeling

Monsoon 2014

Consensus Statement of South Asian Climate Forum (SASCOF -5), Pune, India (14 - 23April2014)

Summary
Below normal to normal rainfall is most likely during the 2014 summer
monsoon season (June - September) over south Asia as a whole. Below normal
rainfall is likely over broad areas of western, central and southwestern parts of South
Asia and some areas in the northeastern most parts of the region. Normal rainfall is
likely over broad areas of northwestern and eastern parts and some island areas
in the southernmost parts of the region.
You can download the full statement in PDF format here

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

Something of interest : National Conference and Field Study on Landslide Management at Nainital (Uttarkhand), India: 22-24 March 2012

STH will certainly be attending the 3 day conference at Nainital

Praful Rao