Raising awareness on impact of landslides on rural communities

Landslides are a cunning disaster form.
They mostly nibble and therefore their impact is not openly evident and it is often under-valued by governments and disaster management professionals alike.
Landslides are also very localized so one hill maybe totally stable and its people ignorant of the devastation being caused by landslides on an adjacent hill or mountain.
Add to this the fact that remote mountain communities seldom speak out and suffer in silence.
In an effort to raise awareness about this disaster form, SaveTheHills along with Junkeri Studio (Kalimpong) has produced two documentaries on the impact of the landslide at Pathing, a village about which we have blogged  a few days earlier.
The links are placed below:

• Gaguney Landslide (Part I) : Pathing (South Sikkim, India), a village on the edge
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9uxcI3NRXE&t=173s
  
  
• Gaguney landslide (Part II) : Pathing (South Sikkim, India), a village on the move
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6vlwdjLEB0&t=8s
  
  
  STH would like to thank the people of Pathing village and Yangyang and also all those who helped us make these documentaries.
  
  

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

Pathing landslide in Yangyang subdivision, South Sikkim revisited: 27Nov2022

Our visit to and report on the 'Very Active Landslide', at Yangyang in South Sikkim, generated much interest from the public at large and more specifically from the people, media and government of Sikkim. As such the 7 min documentary which STH together with Junkeri Studios (Kalimpong) had almost completed required a total overhaul, since much had changed in Pathing.

The landslide, however continued to wreak havoc and we needed to update our videos as well as photos; as such we made another 3 hour trip to Pathing landslides on 27Nov2022. This photo report is from our visit there on the said date:

Probable cause of the landslide and prognosis
As per locals the landslide has been more active AFTER the monsoons rather than when it was raining. An expert whom I spoke to suggested this maybe due to 

• the weak rock formations such as phyllites and schists in the mountain
• the steep (almost 60 -70 deg) incline of the slope failure
  

What the experts and the villagers agreed on was that it was not possible to control or mitigate this slide as such the only choice left for Pathing villagers would be to relocate to a safer place and I am glad to say that the govt is already thinking on those lines.
A glimmer of hope may also come from what the locals told me - that the frequency of rockfall was less for the last few days and that it had not been active for the 3 consecutive nights. So it could also mean that the unstable mass was collapsing slowly which may lead to this slide becoming stable over a period of time.

Location details of slide
Latitude 27° 17' 44.196" N    Longitude 88° 23' 32.874" E
Elevation 1575.60 m

STH together with Junkeri Studios, Kalimpong will be coming up with a 10 min updated documentary which will include extensive drone foot-ages of the landslide, damage to the village and also interviews with affected people in the next week

As always, our thanks to all those who helped in making our second visit to Pathing possible and especially to the people of the village.

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

Images of the first major landslide in the vicinity of Kalimpong : 05Jul2019/0800hrs

Took place on National Highway 31 between Coronation Bridge and Monpong in W Bengal. Time, approx 0800hrs this morning. I do not have rainfall data of the place but we had 22.6mm of rain between 0500-0630hrs in Kalimpong which 20km away (aerial dist).
No casualties.

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Landslide report (Kalimpong) : 17 Aug 2013, Mahakal Dara (between Dr.Graham's Homes and Deolo).

On 17Aug2013 between 0400 hrs - 0500 hrs, a landslide occurred on the road to Mahakal Dara from Kalimpong town. Earlier rockfall and slide instances in this area during intense rain is documented here  and here.
Known details of the slide on 17Aug2013 are as follows :-

• The landslide is located between Dr. Graham's Homes school and Deolo
  (N 27°08.6677’, E 88°49.4376’).
• Rainfall - 28mm between approx 0200hrs - 0400hrs.
• Clearing the road will take at least 2-3 days since the slide is still active, which effectively maroons approx 2-300 people in Mahakal Dara village.
• No deaths.
• Probable cause : Underground water seepage from leaking Deolo water reservoirs (which store domestic water supply for Kalimpong town and are located almost directly above the affected area) and the intense rainfall.

Photo credit : Mukesh Sharma,

                      Dainik Jagran.

Rohan Rao,

Kalimpong,

Dist-Darjeeling,

Email - rohan.rao1313@gmail.com