Images from North Sikkim (13-16Apr2013)

On 18Sep2011 (Sunday), at approx 18.10h IST a 6.8R earthquake rattled much of Sikkim and Darjeeling district.
That very few died was an absolute miracle especially since the quake struck us at the end of the monsoons (when the ground was saturated with water) and that it had rained the whole of Sunday morning.
I have covered the impact of the quake elsewhere in the blog but never had the opportunity to visit North Sikkim where it was epi-centred.
In mid-April 2013, I had visited Mangan (dist headquarters of N Sikkim) and journeyed upto Lachung. While being awed by the amazing beauty of the place, I was totally shocked to see the scale of devastation wrought by the quake even after almost two years. 
The condition of the road from Mangan upto Lachung is appalling with landslides lacerating it at numerous places and magnificent forests of rhododendrons have been decimated by slides enroute to Yumthang ; little wonder then that any heavy spell of rainfall reactivates these slides.
Placed above is a photo essay from my recent visit to this wonderland.


Praful Rao,
Kalimpong

Midsummer Night's Dream - It's winter in summer!

Amongst other weather systems, an upper air cyclonic circulation over east Uttar Pradesh and neighbourhood and the east west trough from the cyclonic circulation has resulted intense weather activity over the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya and which dumped 38mm of rain in a 2hr period last evening at Kalimpong.
Temperatures all over the country have plummeted with the IMetD reporting
"They are below normal by 4-9°C over many parts over of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, west Madhya Pradesh ,Vidarbha, Odisha and Gangetic West Bengal and by 10-17°C over many parts of east Utter Pradesh, east Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand."
So with the temperature hovering around 13°C (in Kalimpong) and 8°C (in Darjeeling) at 0700h this morning,  we are still wrapped up in woollens in what otherwise should be almost peak summers!

Praful Rao,

Kalimpong

Landslide report (18April2013) ie (02/2013) : Small landslide in Kalimpong

Preliminary inquiries reveal the slide occurred in a village located directly below Kalimpong  due to a mountain stream (Botey jhora, in this case) being overloaded by surface runoff from built up areas of the town during the heavy thundershowers.
This is a well known cause for landslides around urban areas in this region and has also caused much of the landslide fatalities in the area.
Much has been achieved by the scientific community in the study of science of landslides but I daresay little has been done in studying the rate and scale of devastation of land and loss of livelihoods by landslides.

Photo Credit : Mukesh Sharma, Janpath Samachar

Praful Rao,

Kalimpong

STH activities : A meeting with Shri Jaswant Singh, Hon MP from Darjeeling - 07Apr2013.

STH had the distinct  privilege of meeting Shri Jaswant Singh, distinguished MP of Darjeeling,during his visit to the hill resort in the first week of Apr2013. 

STH President, Wg Cdr Praful Rao(retd) initiated the talk with a power point presentation on the changing rainfall patterns in the hills of Darjeeling and the landslide situation and then went on to suggest/request the following:-

a) Requirement of early warning system which will alert communities.

b) Better means of forecasting/predicting extreme events such as inordinately heavy rainfall.

c) Requirement of GSI Circle Office in Darjeeling district since as per the GSI, we are in an highly landslide prone area and the nearest GSI office is in Kolkata.

d) IMetD Gangtok to include Darjeeling district for weather warnings, forecasts since we are in a contiguous mountainous region and are affected by much the same weather systems as Sikkim.

Praful Rao,

Kalimpong

Rainfall data of Mar2013

Almost all landslides in the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya are triggered by rain and therefore one of STH's primary role over the years has been to monitor rainfall. In so doing, we check rainfall on the IMD AWS stations and also track rainfall on our own small network of automatic rainfall gauges (ARGs) which we have installed at 4 places - a fifth ARG will also be up and running by end of April2013 in Mangan (North Sikkim). The locations of our ARGs is shown in the map :-

The pre- monsoon season in India technically is from Mar-May and as such our rainfall data chart for the month of March2013 is tabulated below :-

What is worth noting is that Kalimpong on 21Mar2013 received more rain in 90 mins (37mm - excluding hail stones) than the monthly average rainfall (see here for details).

Praful Rao,

Kalimpong

The first landslide report of 2013 ie (01/2013)

Even as Sikkim Express reported training being conducted in Disaster Management in North Sikkim (see above), the Telegraph of 30 Mar2013, reported the first landslides in this region for the year 2013, luckily there were no fatalities.

An excerpt of the report from the Telegraph of 30Mar2013 is placed below :-

"Landslides

Siliguri, March 29: Two rain-triggered landslides in Sikkim’s North district today stranded 300-350 tourists going from Gangtok to Lachen and Lachung, both over 90km from the state’s capital.

There are no reports of deaths. The subsidence happened between 6pm and 6.30pm, according to Border Roads Organisation (BRO) sources. The roads from Chungthang to Lachen and Lachung both got blocked.

There are reports of tourists stuck on both sides. The BRO sources said no road repair work could be started in the evening as the rain has continued unabated."

It is well known that we live in an area where the landslide fatalities are the highest in the world  and that the Geological Survey of India has categorized us in the most landslide prone zones in the country (see below).

One of our endeavors in STH is to catalogue and maintain a record of this disaster form so that we may study its causes and help us live with this hazard in the best way possible.

Praful Rao,

Kalimpong

Our 74rth one....

Ever since its inception in Sep2007, one of the primary roles of STH has been to raise awareness about landslides and the fragility of the mountain environment.
In so doing we have assisted various media organizations in making 3 documentary films on landslides and also participated or organized many awareness workshops and seminars on disasters and landslides, all over the country and at various levels starting from the grass roots to the national.
On 22Mar2013, we did our 74rth awareness program at the Kalimpong Child Development Centre which was attended by more than 80 parents and children from villages on the western face of Kalimpong and the program was well received.
I am glad to say that we have done so with very little funding but lots of goodwill and help from fellow NGOs, Government organizations and eminent scientists and resource persons who have shared their knowledge in our platforms without charging a dime.
Our entire work in this regard has been well documented in this blog and we hope to continue this important task with gusto in the future.

Praful Rao
Kalimpong

Reporting an extreme event (21March2013) : More rain in 90mins than the monthly rainfall of March.

Mar - May is technically the pre-monsoon season in India where we do expect thunderstorms associated with Cb activity and in Darjeeling-Sikkim we have been having sporadic rainfall along with thunder and lightning this month.
On 21Mar2013, however, the fast moving western disturbance seen in the IR image above, dumped 37mm of rain and lots of hail in approx 90 mins in Kalimpong.
Considering that the average monthly rainfall (taking data of 5yrs from here) for Darjeeling district for the month of March is 26mm, it seems incredible that yesterday between 3.00-4.30pm  we had more rain than the monthly average rainfall!
My deepest concern and fear in all this is whether we are prepared to face such extreme events which unfortunately becoming more and more frequent.

Praful Rao
Kalimpong

STH Activities : Training workshop on Disaster Management at Darjeeling (15Mar2013)

Praful Rao

A welcome development for North Bengal (from the Telegraph 25Feb2013)

Teams to tackle disasters

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Siliguri, Feb. 24: The state disaster management department has decided to form Quick Response Teams for Siliguri and Darjeeling along with other districts of the state to tackle fire, accidents and natural calamities. The teams will have volunteers with experience in handling such situations. Amit Choudhury, a joint secretary of the department, said: “We have decided to form separate QRTs for the plains and hills. These would be dedicated teams posted in Siliguri and Darjeeling. The volunteers would be paid remuneration against their services and will be equipped with machinery and vehicle required in emergencies like accidents or earthquakes. Our attempt is to keep the teams prepared so that they can reach the spot at the earliest.” “In districts located on the banks of the Ganges and other rivers, we plan to form similar teams which would comprise experienced deep water divers to mitigate casualties during incidents of drowning. The volunteers would be under 35 years,” he added. The department, in association with the district disaster management cells of Darjeeling and Cooch Behar, held a two-day training programme on school disaster safety for schoolteachers, NGO representatives and block officials. “The workshop was organised under the National School Safety Project. The idea is to draft school disaster management plans so that students can be safely evacuated in case there is an emergency,” Chaudhuri said. He added that the state government was planning to introduce disaster management as a compulsory additional subject in secondary course. “It is necessary for children to have a clear concept of disaster management and their duty in case such emergencies occur.” Photo from STH archives Praful Rao