After the landslide fatalities of 17Jun2011, rain continued to lash the entire district in varying amounts. Kurseong received the brunt of it and this resulted in more slides taking place the already vulnerable area of St Mary's Hill there. Fear stricken residents of the area fled to safer areas. Photos from the area placed below :-
High intensity rainfall has continued in the entire district today (20Jun2011) and it clocked 152mm by 7.45am at Darjeeling whereas Kalimpong and Kurseong received approx 60mm during a 3hr period.
The torrent in Darjeeling resulted in a nightmare coming true :- a landslide in a densely populated urban setting - and as in cyclone AILA in May2009, the causes for the slide evidently being related to drainage and other human activities. The only silver lining was that because the landslide took place quite early (7.40am), there was little human activity and the Nepali Girls Higher Secondary School some parts of which were buried by the slide was closed at the time. As such there were no deaths or casualties. Some of the buildings seen in the photos have been evacuated for the time being. Photos of the landslide are placed below :-
Credits
My thanks to STH member, Bhushan Chettri for his enthusiastic response, story and photos from Kurseong and to Mr Tenzin Sherpa of ATREE, Darjeeling for the photos from Darjeeling
Praful Rao
Praful Rao
