STH Activities : A GSI/ Local community interaction on LANDSLIDES (22Jan2020)

Praful Rao
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

STH Activities : Landslide Survey on the eastern flanks of Kalimpong (14July2016)

 14th Mile Landslide

The 14th mile 'sinking zone' lying on the eastern face of the Kalimpong ridgeline is one of the old landslide areas of this town. It is repaired on annual basis and is rumored to be a "blessing" to many a contractor - except that now with population growing and even a posh hotel coming up directly above this site, it will also be a curse to quite a few.
When I visited the site on 14Jul2016, I found that a portion of the road to Algarah had sunk considerably (slide 'A') and worse still the culvert next to it had also sunk (slide 'B') - and ALL the water from the culvert was percolating into the crack (slide 'C') acting as a lubricant to an unstable hillside ready to slide down.
Coordinates :
27°05´27.6” N

088°31´57.0”E
Elevation : 1372m

Landslide blocking Kalimpong - Lava Road

With our main road to the external world, NH10 always in a precarious state during the monsoons, we rely on the Kalimpong- Lava- Gorubathan road as our an alternate route to the plains. Unfortunately, this road also has quite a few 'hotspots' which keep the BRO busy during the monsoons.
On Sunday, 10July2016 at around 1600h, following the 125mm rainfall of Saturday, a portion of this road near Rickisum gave way. It remained blocked for 4 days and effectively cut off Lava and much of the eastern parts of sub-division from Kalimpong town.

Coodinates :

27°05´49.5”N
088°36´22.6”E
Elevation : 1804m

Praful Rao,

Kalimpong,

Dist Darjeeling

Landslides in Kalimpong - A pictoral report (July2015)

On 30Jun/01July2015 torrential rains lashed Kalimpong dumping 227mm of rain in a 8hr period. This triggered numerous landslides both within the municipal limits and in the sub-division. STH did a survey of some of the affected areas which are indicated on the map above. Images from the areas are placed below.

As per the GSI, the Darjeeling- Sikkim Himalaya is one of the most landslide prone areas in the country and as per Dr David Petley, this area also is one of the global hotspots for fatal landslides.
SaveTheHills (STH) has, in this blog, over the years tried to maintain a historical record of this disaster form which has not received due recognition the world over so as to offer undeniable proof of a scourge which is growing worse in this region as human interference in the mountains increases.
In July2015, after 3 yrs of low landslide activity, we are witnessing a spurt in the number of landslides in Darjeeling district (esp in Kalimpong and Mirik) due to erratic and intense rainfall.
Rainfall records for Kalimpong and this region are placed here ( 1 and 2 ).
What is also clear is almost all the fatalities especially in urban or semi-urban settings are the result of poor or non-existent drainage.
While we have tried to cover many areas of the sub-division in our survey, large areas remain uncharted due to lack of resources and what is shown above is only the tip of the iceberg. (Major landslide areas south of the river Relli have not been included in our survey.)
GPS co-ordinates of all landslide listed are placed below:-

Placemark		Latitude		Longitude
1		27° 4'40.69"N		88°28'57.54"E
2		27° 4'57.11"N		88°29'13.31"E
3		27° 5'6.11"N		88°29'24.97"E
4		27° 4'23.12"N		88°27'17.35"E
5		27° 3'28.51"N		88°26'45.02"E
6		27° 3'59.18"N		88°28'25.21"E
7		27° 2'50.46"N		88°28'52.10"E
8		27° 4'23.45"N		88°29'18.64"E
9		27° 3'4.14"N		88°26'33.45"E
10		27° 4'8.12"N		88°29'38.10"E
11		27° 2'42.50"N		88°39'4.80"E
12		27° 5'13.50"N		88°39'41.10"E
13		27° 5'59.00"N		88°40'56.60"E
14		27° 6'16.50"N		88°40'48.40"E
15		27° 4'10.20"N		88°38'1.70"E
16		26°57'42.60"N		88°41'56.00"E
17		27° 3'8.72"N		88°39'19.75"E
18		27° 9'34.50"N		88°38'12.50"E

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist Darjeeling

Geological Survey of India (GSI) visit - Kalimpong 2013

Mr Debashish Bhattacharya Senior Geologist from GSI (Geological Survey of India) is in Kalimpong until tommorow 04Dec2013. The Scientist was here around the same time last year in 2012, during which STH had accompanied him on recce trips to most of the landslide affected places in Kalimpong. 

The monsoon season in 2013 was a rather mild one and there were hardly any new landslides this year and most of the major landslide zones from the years before showed very little signs any fresh activity. We have been with the geologist since the 28Nov2013 and will be going on our last field visit today 03Nov2013 to Nimbong, Suruk and Samthar villages.

Rohan Rao,
Kalimpong,
Dist-Darjeeling,
Email - rohan.rao1313@gmail.com

STH activities - with the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Program (component 'C' - W Bengal) team in Darjeeling district (25-27Jan2013)

W Bengal is one of the 6 states chosen as a part of a nation wide study by National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) to develop at long term strategies for disaster risk reduction.
7 members of  NCRMP (component 'C'), W. Bengal, team visited Darjeeling district between 25-27Jan2013 and STH was very much involved in organizing the teams field visits to  landslide affected villages of Balasun and Chibo-Pashyor and the conduct of their survey there. 4 young members from the STH were actively associated the  survey of landslide affected communities and it was a wonderful learning process for both the NCRMP team and us.
My thanks tof the team the entire NCRMP team and also to Fr Valentine of Anugyalaya and Mr Bharat Prakash Rai of FOSEP.

Praful Rao

STH Activities : Chasing landslides in Kalimpong

In the second week of Dec2012, I had the pleasure of interacting with Mr Debashish Bhattacharya, senior geologist from Geological Survey of India, which is the nodal body looking after landslides in the country. The GSI scientist was in Kalimpong for 10days with a mandate to update the GSI landslide inventory of this area.

I am glad to say that a group of volunteers and I could accompany the geologist to all the major landslide zones in the vicinity of Kalimpong town and also provide him assistance in visiting landslide sites in Nimbong, Suruk, Samthar, Algarah and Payun (ie places in Kalimpong sub-division but at a considerable distance from town).

All this points to the vital necessity of involvement of local people in landslide surveys by any outstation scientific body if the correct picture of the landslide situation is to emerge; because only through local participation can the GSI (or any other body) understand the past history of the area and the impact of landslides on human beings, which after all should be the final endeavor of any scientific inquiry.

Placed above are images of some ot the areas we visited along with captions. Many of the sites have links on this blog where you can read more details :-
SLIDE 1 - read further here
SLIDE 2 - read further here
SLIDE 7,8,9 - read further here

My thanks to Debashish for his time and for accompanying us on those long, steep treks as we chased landslides in Kalimpong.

Praful Rao