Impact of the Oct 2023 Teesta Valley GLOF on road communications - the continuing nightmare at Pedong and Toong

Map showing trouble spots at Pedong and Toong

Traffic bottle necks at PEDONG
Pedong (27.1594° N, 88.6157° E) is a small town in Kalimpong district and is nowhere near the Teesta valley yet the impact of the Oct 2023 GLOF is being felt daily by the residents of the town.
The Teesta valley GLOF reactivated a dormant landslide at Likhu Bhir which continues to pose a problem for traffic along NH10 so the Kalimpong District Administration has again closed that section of the highway for the weekend as per this travel advisory:

As a result the entire heavy vehicular traffic to / from Sikkim to the plains of North Bengal is routing thru Kalimpong and Pedong causing huge traffic jams in Pedong. The vehicles have also damaged water pipelines causing disruptions in water supply in the town and damaged other infrastructure since the roads are narrow and were never intended to handle such heavy, continuous traffic.

Traffic jam at Pedong

Likhu Bhir landslides on NH10 (Nov2023)

TOONG bridge
The bridge at Toong was vital for communications to North Sikkim and when the GLOF took it down, traffic had to be routed thru a longer and more dangerous route which we took while going to Chungthang in Nov2023.
The locals had constructed a wooden bridge over the Teesta river in Feb2024 (see below) which was being used by light vehicles.

Wooden bridge at Toong in Feb2024

However, the recent rains in the area resulted in the bridge being damaged (see video)

Since the alternate route is longer and much more cumbersome, locals at once got down to repairing the damage (see images of 06Apr2024 below)

I don't think this bridge will hold out for much longer now that the pre- monsoon showers have started over our region...which leaves us in a rather precarious position with regard to all the GLOF damaged road communications in our region - a question which I asked back in Nov2023...

                               How do we manage in the Monsoons of 2024?

My thanks to all friends and HA members from Pedong, North Sikkim who made this report possible. Please stay safe.

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

Photographic record of the impact of 04Oct2023 GLOF between Sangkalang and Toong ( North Sikkim) -18Nov2023.

The main road (NH310A) from Mangan to Chungthang (29kms) is blocked near Naga and the bridge at Toong has been swept away, as such now the only road to Chungthang is as shown in RED below which is 40kms long and takes double the time (ie 2hrs).
We made this trip in the early hours of 18Nov2023, leaving Dzongu at 4.30am so that we could spend the whole day covering Chungthang and its vicinity (that will be covered in the subsequent blog).
This blog only records the GLOF disaster at Naga, Ritchu and Toong villages in the Teesta valley, in Mangan, North Sikkim and on NH310A.

The alternate route to Chungthang
Prior to starting a steep climb, one encounters this bridge (27 31 33.5 N 88 31 40.6) Elev 483m/1564', over the pristine and beautiful Kanaka river. See Praveen's drone image below.

Thereafter, the road snakes up in a series of 45 bends at the bottom of the hill and climbs to an altitude of almost 7000'. At places the road is very narrow, hewn out of bare rock with the road edge perilously close..an accident here would mean a fall into a gorge several thousand feet deep and sure death.
This is definitely not a road suitable for heavy vehicles and traffic, being steep, narrow at places and even dangerous.

The army does not allow their vehicles to ply on this route.
After driving on this route for an hour plus we came across areas in the Teesta valley and opposite hill which showed the scars of the GLOF and dam burst on 04Oct2023.

Destruction in Ritchu and Naga village (27.548536N 88.643017E), Mangan district.

Drone images by Praveen of affected areas around Naga village (Mangan district), North Sikkim are given below:

Telephoto images of the same area are below

These photos were taken from (27 32 58.9 N 88 37 48.3 E). There was a lot of haze in the atmosphere hence the discoloration in the photos.
As per Phurkit Lepcha of Shipgyer (village enroute to Chungthang), whom we interviewed - these landslides in the village of Ritchu or Bong (in Toong-Naga GP, Mangan district) did not take place during the GLOF (04Oct) but took place gradually on the 05Oct2023 and thereafter. She expressed apprehension about the survival of these areas in the next year.

I spoke to Dusung Lepcha (31yrs), at Toong village a little later who said that almost the whole village of Ritchu was severely damaged and the destruction at Naga was also immense.

GLOF impact at Toong village (27 33 3.3 N 88 38 38.8 E), 1351m.
We decided to cover the damage at Toong village while on our way upto to Chungthang since it was still  early in the morning.
The road to Toong, itself is badly damaged with a major landslide and several large cracks on the road.
We arrived at Toong after crossing the large Theeng tunnel on NH310A.

Toong lies in the Teesta valley on NH310A or the highway connecting Mangan to Chungthang.
As per locals, the GLOF hit Toong at around 12.30am on 04Oct2023 and took down the bridge at that time. They said villages further downstream ie Ritchu and Naga had also been badly damaged but the only way to get there was crossing the river on a small bamboo bridge on foot.
Sikkim Police had a check post here which was abandoned and lay hanging near the river's edge.

Sikkim Police check post, destroyed by the GLOF on 04Oct2023 lies deserted at Toong.

Drone image (by Praveen) of the destroyed bridge across the Teesta at Toong.  This bridge on NH310A which is more suitable for heavy traffic, connected Mangan (North Sikkim district HQ.) to Chungthang and other areas in North Sikkim.
A local person I spoke to here said that they had lost a lot here and was also not sure of the plight of hundreds of workers who were working on a defense road across the bridge.
Again, there is a frantic effort to rebuild this bridge and to repair the damaged areas of NH310A before the monsoons since the other roadway is definitely not suitable.

Close - up of the destroyed bridge across the Teesta at Toong. The bridge was taken down by the GLOF and dam burst on 04Oct2023. Now one has to cross the Teesta on the tiny bamboo bridge to reach villages across the river.

My thanks to all those we spoke to and all those who helped.

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