Introduction to Landslide Hazards: A documentary by SaveTheHills with the help of Project Landslip

 As I keep saying, landslides and momos are a part of every day life in the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya and the sooner we learn to live with this hazard the better.
As such, generating awareness about landslides is important and has always been one of the main roles of STH.

Towards this end, we have just completed an introductory documentary on landslide hazards - it is in Nepali (with English subtitles). The link is here
We will have two more documentaries as a follow up.
STH thanks Project Landslip for all the technical advice and help in making this video possible.

Praful Rao
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Fatal landslide in Pune

Excerpt from Hindustan Times
"Casualties were feared as nearly 200 people were left trapped inside houses on a hillside following a landslide in Maharashtra’s Pune district on Wednesday.

Police official Vinod Pawar told mediapersons the landslide struck Malin village in Ambegaon tehsil around 5am after heavy downpour loosened earth and dislodged rocks and boulders.
At least 40 houses were feared buried under the debris from a hill that collapsed while residents were sleeping. Television footage showed the side of the hill shaved off, with large amounts of mud, muddy water and logs piled below."
Read full article here

Comments by Praful Rao

• Having worked on landslides for the past 7 yrs, I am pretty much sure the number of deaths will climb to much higher than the 10 being reported now.
• Rainfall data obtained of Pune from 23Jul-30Jul2014 (from here) shows that there was heavy rainfall only on 30Jul2014 (Pune Pashan agro record show 109mm today, other stations show significantly less amounts of rainfall) 
• I cannot help wondering whether
  a. There was any early warning about the heavy rain specifically in the region
  b. Anthropogenic factors also added to the landslide trigger (since the region had a huge deficiency in rainfall till recently and IMD AWS rainfall data for the last  week does not really show catastrophic rainfall).
  
  Praful Rao
  Kalimpong,
  Dist Darjeeling