A mention from an Icon in his memoirs : Prof Leszek Starkel On SaveTheHills

In the world of Geo-morphology, Prof Leszek Starkel of the Polish Academy of Sciences stands tall.
A virtual giant of a man and a pioneer in the studies of landslides in the Darjeeling Himalaya, he first came to Darjeeling after the Oct 1968 disaster and continued to turn up almost every year thereafter to trudge these mountains and write volumes.
I came across him quite by accident. A friend had loaned me Prof Starkel's book on landslides some time in early 2008 and while flipping thru the pages I found his email address on the last page of the book. I shot off an email to him and promptly forgot about it, never expecting a reply from someone as famous or as busy.
Almost 6 months later I received a reply from him saying he would be in this area in the autumn of 2008 and would be happy to meet me. What followed was almost history for STH - we quickly organized the first Seminar on Landslide Hazards at Darjeeling with Prof Starkel as our keynote speaker.
I found his 'Memoirs' recently while researching the 1968 disaster and have published the excerpts below:

The images of the 21Nov2008 Seminar are here

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

A distinct honour..collaborating with Prof Leszek Starkel

Prof Leszek Starkel, is a legendary figure amongst geomorphologists whose interest in landslides in this part of the world spans many decades. He was our main speaker last year in Darjeeling and exactly a year later he was with us on 21Nov2009 during our workshop in Kalimpong.

While interacting with him during the day's proceedings, Prof Starkel invited STH to  to co-author an article with him for a scientific journal. He has since reached home (Krakow, Poland)  from where I recd the letter below :-
"Thank you so much for your  invitation and interesting discussion during workshop in Kalimpong. I hope that the joint paper will be realized. Next week I will write you details about structure of paper and needed records on rains, landslides etc.

with best regards
Yours,
Leszek Starkel"


Praful Rao