Memorandum for urgent action on the Teesta Valley disaster 2024, submitted by SaveTheHils (STH) and Darjeeling Himalaya Initiative (DHI) on 27Jun2024

A submerged Darjeeling-Kalimpong road and stranded vehicle on 13Jun2024 at Teesta bazar, Kalimpong district

During our numerous visits in Oct/Nov2023 to many parts of the Teesta valley following the GLOF disaster of 03/04Oct2023 (photo records of which are in this blog), it was plain to see the magnitude of the catastrophe and the limited time available for any major restoration/mitigation work before the arrival of the 2024 summer monsoons.
With just 6 months time to set the house in order and with the General Elections looming up in April 2024, we anticipated that major engineering works required to keep populated areas in the valley safe and repairs to NH10 would never be possible. As such, even though we had not surveyed areas beyond DIKCHU, we emailed our report and recommendations (consisting mostly of short term measures which were doable in the time available) to the Chairman, NDMA, Chairpersons of Sikkim and W Bengal SDMA's and a host of other senior government officials and political parties. This was done, jointly by SaveTheHills (STH) and the Darjeeling Himalaya Initiative (DHI) between 10-13Nov2023 and the entire report and recommendations was published on this blog on 22Nov2023

Our opening statement in the report is reproduced below and now seems ironically prophetic:

•   'We need an expert team to visit these areas and advise us the course of action to be taken in the limited time we have before the next monsoons.
•   We should focus on building the resilience of communities in the flood affected areas while continuing with the recovery and reconstruction process, since many of our populated areas in the Teesta Valley in Sikkim and W Bengal will again be affected during the Monsoons 2024.
•   Time is of essence'

Since we received no acknowledgement or replies to the Report/Recommendation emailed, STH sent a reminder on 17Feb2024 to the Home Affairs (Disaster Management) Department in https://pgportal.gov.in (Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System). The report is reproduced below:

'On 04Oct2023, the entire Teesta Valley, including areas in Sikkim as well as W Bengal was devastated by a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) from South Lhonak glacier in North Sikkim and the collapse of a 1200MW dam at Chungthang (Sikkim). Both DHI and STH has been following the disaster and its impact and the devastation has been recorded extensively in the STH blog with reports, photographs and maps.
On 10Nov2023, we emailed a report of the devastation to the NDMA and SSDMAs of Sikkim and W. Bengal suggesting some short term measures which were necessary to mitigate the impact of the summer monsoons in 2024 (http://savethehills.blogspot.com/2023/11/report-and-recommendations-on-glof.html).
Essentially the report noted that
a. The Teesta river bed had risen by as much as 3-4m all along the valley due to sediment deposits during the flood and as such many populated areas were exposed to flood risk from a river whose path was now unpredictable.
b. The floods had caused extensive damage to government and private infrastructure along the valley and no major dams on the Teesta river, north of the Teesta Low Dam Project IV at Kalijhora were functional.
c. The short term measures suggested were

• Improved early warning and alerting mechanisms in the valley

• Better preparedness of relief and evacuation centres

• Capacity building and raising awareness among affected locals

• Rehabilitation/relocation of the many people who had lost everything during the flood

• Road safety along NH10 which suffered extensive damage.

Now that the pre- monsoon season is almost here, we request that these and other pertinent issues relating to saving lives and property may be looked into urgently.'

This report was acknowledged by an Additional Secretary of the DM Division but has only a cryptic remark saying 'Suggestions are noted' and the case was closed.

Nothing happened thereafter.
Now 6 months have passed and the monsoons are here and we face it with very little disaster mitigation work being done or better preparedness, anywhere in the Teesta valley.

Around 13Jun2024 and for several days thereafter, rainfall in the catchment areas in North Sikkim resulted in the river swelling up and engulfing parts of Teesta and Melli bazar and the Kalimpong to Darjeeling road. The Likhu Bhir section of NH10 which is 7km (aerial distance) from Kalimpong is again giving continuous problems and approximately 1200 tourists were rescued from north Sikkim where a newly constructed bridge at Sangkalang was swept away and 9 people died in landslides at Mangan(district HQ of North Sikkim).

The CM of Sikkim Mr PS Golay made a hurried visit to Delhi and met the PM, Finance Minister, Home Minister and Jal Shakti Minister and has requested for funds as well as experts to help manage the disaster in Sikkim.
We have not heard anything from the Govt of W Bengal even though the most troublesome   50km of NH10 (out of the 90 km distance from Sevoke to Gangtok) lies within W Bengal and mostly in Kalimpong district as are many low lying populated areas in the Teesta valley.

In view of the developing situation and with three months of rains still ahead of us, STH and DHI have again emailed a letter to the Chairman NDMA, MInister in Charge SDMA W Bengal, MP Darjeeling and several other political heads.
The Memorandum submitted yesterday (27Jun2024) is reproduced below:

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

The Teesta Valley GLOF disaster of Oct2023 in WMO 'State of the Climate in Asia 2023' report

The above report has been released by WMO (World Meteorological Organization) on 23Apr2024 and contains a comprehensive account of the climate and extreme events in Asia in 2023:

The Teesta Valley GLOF disaster has also been mentioned prominently in the report (page 18) and it vindicates our stand on it - that it was the largest GLOF disaster in the Himalayas in the recent past and YET it hardly received any attention from the national media or the state governments and the centre.
After the WMO report however, several national level e- papers have carried the story:

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

Normal Rainfall stats for Sub-Himalayan West Bengal (SHWB) and Sikkim updated by IMD Gangtok.

 The Rainfall Normals for SHWB and Sikkim have been revised by IMD. The OLD one (below)

has been updated and the NEW Rainfall Normals are placed here:

Significant points to note are:

• The period of observation has decreased from 1951 to 1971 to 2000 ie a 20 year decline.
• There is an overall decrease in the TOTAL rainfall by 169.1mm ie from 2708.9mm to 2539.8mm
• There is a significant decrease (325.5mm) in the rainfall for the winter and pre-monsoon periods so we will have more drought like conditions during this period.
• There is a significant increase (254.9mm) in the rainfall for the post monsoon period.
• Rainfall during the monsoon period has also decreased by 116.7mm. 
  

Source: IMD Gangtok (Sikkim)


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

Our adverse weather early warning work on What'sApp groups in the Darjeeling- SIkkim region: Thunderstorms of 11/12Apr2024 in Kalimpong

After the Teesta Valley GLOF of 04Oct2023, our region has been extraordinarily dry, with the erratic western disturbance activity in the winter months, robbing us of all our winter rain. In Kalimpong we had the first showers after Oct2023, between 19 & 27Mar2024 where we clocked 112.6mm. Thereafter, it has been dry with forest fires again starting in the Teesta Valley.
With regard to early warnings on adverse weather events and disbursement of information on landslides, road blocks etc, SaveTheHills has been running several very active and large What'sApp groups in the Darjeeling-Sikkim region called 'Hazard Alerts or HA' for many years now and the following cloud image on approaching adverse weather was posted in the group on 11Apr2024:

This image was posted on 'Hazard Alerts' WhatsApp group at 1.31pm on 11Apr2024 along with lightning warnings from the IMD 'Damini' (lightning warning) app. Shortly after this was done, the first storm hit our region at around 2.30pm. Wind speeds in gusts reached upto 58kmph.

This storm died down momentarily at around 4.30pm only to pick up again quickly. The following cloud image along with NOWCASTs from IMD were posted to members in the 'Hazard Alerts' What'sApp groups.

Warning posted at 5.36pm to our WhatsApp groups alerting them about another storm which was approaching.

Subsequent cloud images which show the progress of the storm from 6.45pm to 10.45pm on 11April2024

The thunderstorm which hit Kalimpong at 2.30pm on 11April2024, raged right thru the night and only ceased at around 8.00am on 12Apil2024. Surprisingly, we had only 2mm of rain however strong, gusty, westerly winds from Nepal along with lightning prevailed for more than 12hrs. The graphical analysis of the windspeed from our Davis Vantage Pro AWS is placed below:

Though there were no casualties or damage from the storm, what was unusual was its duration considering there was no major weather system (such as a depression/cyclone) near by.
Also what is possible today is to get reliable and accurate information of such weather events in advance and to disburse the same quickly to a large number of people. We have been doing this regularly in WhatsApp since Jun 2016.

Praful Rao
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya

Impact of the Oct 2023 Teesta Valley GLOF on road communications at Likhu Bhir on NH10 ( Kalimpong district, 13-14Apr2024)

On what is becoming a familiar story, NH10 is closed for maintenance work and again at Likhu Bhir - an old landslide, who's ghosts were resurrected by the GLOF of 04Oct2023 and is causing headaches to the District Admin & PWD and nightmares to those using the highway. It is closed again this weekend, seven days after it was shut down for repair last week.

Images of maintenance work taking place on NH10 at Likhu Bhir on 13Apr2024

My thanks to Mr Mukesh Sharma, reporter from Kalimpong for sharing these images with STH


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

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

Views of the Teesta river after Cyclone Aila (May2009) and after the GLOF (Oct2023)

During our talks with GLOF affected people in the Teesta valley, they say that many officials, politicians and others often ask them why they built their homes so close to the river; to which they answer, 'No, we never built our homes close to the river - it is the river which has now come close to us!'

When I relate this during my talks on the Teesta valley GLOF, it often draws laughter from the audience - not realizing that I wholly share the views of the affected people:

The Teesta river which was once quite far from settlements has now moved closer to homes, roads and urban areas.

I visited the Teesta river on 11Jun2009, soon after Cyclone AILA (25-27May2009) and took photos of the river from the Teesta bridge. There were no dams those days but the river was still quite big because of the SW monsoons and Cyclone AILA.

After the Oct2023 Teesta Valley GLOF, again we made numerous trips to the Teesta river and photographed the river from almost the same spot on the bridge 14years later. I have placed both below for you to see how the river has moved closer to people's homes

Facing south (towards Siliguri)

Teesta, shortly after Cyclone AILA in Jun2009. Notice the level of the river visavis the Kalimpong to Darjeeling road on the right. The river was free flowing those days since the major dams on the Teesta were yet to be built.

Teesta river after the Oct2023 GLOF. Rainfall in our area totally stopped after 04Oct2023 (when the GLOF occurred) but the silt deposits had increased the river level as such it was flowing almost at the same level as the Kalimpong to Darjeeling road (on the right)

Facing north (towards Gangtok)

Cyclone AILA (27May2009) heralded in the SW monsoons that year as such the river is still quite large. Nevertheless the Teesta Bazar (left side) was not touched by the river even during Cyclone AILA

Our entire region had drought like conditions since the GLOF in Oct2023, yet the river stretches from one bank to the other and is flowing very close to homes in the Teesta bazar (left). The river is brown and loaded with silt and debris which is being dumped into the river by people excavating their homes and belongings all along the valley and also by the tunneling being done by the railway project. All in all the level of  the river bed has increased by 3-4m after the GLOF.

A makeshift road has come up on the right bank and leads to the new IRCON railway bridge being constructed next to the existing one.

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

The National Highway 10 (NH10 - Siliguri to Gangtok) maintenance problem (post GLOF) begins in Mar2024

NH10 and Likhu Bhir in 2017 & 2023

MoRTH website on NH10 reads as follows:
'The highway starting from Indo / Bangladesh Border connecting Fulbari Siliguri in the State of West Bengal connecting Sivok, Kalimpang near N.H-10 and terminating at Gangtok in the State of Sikkim'. 52kms of the highway is in Sikkim, the remaining 65.97kms being in W Bengal.
Further to our earlier report on National Highway 10 (NH10), the recent rains in our region caused landslides along parts of NH10 which resulted in road blockages and traffic jams and as such the Kalimpong District Administration has closed parts of NH10 for traffic as per the letter below:

 

 

Prolonged closure of NH10 dates
Road closures for several hours on NH10 due to landslips, erosion and rockfalls etc are commonplace and take place almost daily during the monsoons. Prolonged closure dates of the highway in the recent past are as follows:-
* In 2007 and 11Jun2010 at HaatiSurey, near Coronation bridge – blocked for a week.
* 26Jun-03Jul2015 due to landslide at SetiJhora (near TLDP IV)
* 14-15Jan 2016 due to landslide at BhoteyBhir (near Rangpo)
* 06Jul2019 for almost a week at Seti Jhora

Despite several alternate routes now being available (see map below), NH10 remains the shortest distance with the least gradient changes and is the quickest way to commute from Sikkim and Kalimpong to SIliguri and the plains of North Bengal - however, it may not be the safest route anymore.

NH10 and alternate routes

DATA ON NH10 (and the alternate routes from Gangtok and Kalimpong to Siliguri)

Distances - Siliguri to Gangtok
Via NH10 - 114kms out of which approx 90kms is in mountainous terrain. Approx 60kms from Singtam to Sevoke is along the banks of the Teesta river.
a. Alternate route 1 (via Pakyong- Reshi-Algarah-Lava-Sevoke-Siliguri) - 241kms
b. Alternate route 2 (via Rangpo-Chitrey-Kalimpong-Algarah-Lava-Sevoke-Siliguri)  - 205kms

Distances- Kalimpong to Siliguri  
Via NH10 - 67kms
a. Alternate route 1 (via Ghoom -Kurseong) - 99kms
b. Alternate route 2 (via Algarah-Lava- Gorubathan-Sevoke) - 132kms
c. Alternate route 3 (across Relli river- Samthar- Panbu-Kalijhora-Sevoke)

It is estimated that approximately 3000 vehicles use the NH10 daily when permitted.

Images of landslide and traffic snarls in that part of the road

Rockfall at Likhu Bhir after rains on 23Mar2024

Traffic jam at Chitrey (Teesta) due to rock fall at Likhu Bhir, 23Nov2024

Traffic jam at Likhu Bhir on 24Jan2024 at around 6pm

 

As we have reported earlier, Likhu Bhir is an old landslide which was dormant for many years until the GLOF of 04Oct2023 reactivated it.

File photo from July2019

Also as reported, the Teesta river bed has risen by almost 4m all along the valley due to the silt and sand deposits brought down by the GLOF, which makes NH10 much more prone to subsidence/erosion (the TLDP III and IV dam activities and the IRCON tunnelling having contributed their share to making sections of NH10 more prone to subsidence, rockfalls and landslides)

Rainfall (at Kalimpong) from 19Mar to 23Mar2024
107mm.
It was surprising that very moderate rainfall, after almost 4 months of complete drought could trigger so much instability in the Likhu Bhir area.
Recently, I met a geomorphologist who said that the Oct 2023 Teesta Valley GLOF was the biggest such event in the Himalayas in the recent past. I believe him entirely.

My thanks to our WhatsApp group 'HA' members who's photos I have used :)

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

After the drought - welcome rains in mid - March2024 but also the adverse impact on NH10

After the devastating Teesta valley GLOF of 04Oct2023, our region went in for a four and a half month drought where we did not get a drop of rain:

Both the post-monsoon and  winter season rains went missing and with the vegetation and forests bone dry, we had forest fires much earlier than usual (SHWB is Sub-Himalayan W Bengal)

Screenshot of my post in our What'sApp group, 'Hazard Alerts' showing forest fires in Jan2024.

Forest fire in Sikkim: 16Mar2024

The drought-like conditions continued right upto mid-March2024 with acute drinking water scarcity in many of the urban centres in our region - in Kalimpong there was a 3 day waiting list for anyone wanting to buy water from the water tankers and also, I believe people have started drilling for ground water again. In the rural areas, springs dried up.

Winter rains are caused by Western Disturbances (WDs) which originate around the Mediterranean sea.
DownToEarth reported on the matter, excerpts of which are placed below:
'There has been a lack of rainfall during the post-monsoon season and next to no winter snowfall in some of the north Indian states as a result of a lack of intense western disturbances. This can affect the yield of Rabi crops in these regions and also availability of water in the mountains in general. The lack of snowfall in the mountains could also lead to a warmer than normal pre-monsoon season, with excess rainfall that could affect the harvesting period of Rabi crops. 
Winter precipitation in north India is essential to ensure people’s food and water security. While Rabi is the major cropping season encouraged by rainfall, the glacial streams and rivulets in the Himalayas are fed by melting snow and ice later in the season. 
The only source of rainfall and snowfall in the region are extratropical storms known as western disturbances (WD), which travel from the Mediterranean region. They induce cyclonic circulations in the lower layers of the atmosphere, which cause rainfall in the plains and snowfall in the mountains. They also interact with other wind systems such as the easterlies (winds blowing from the east) to cause rainfall in central India.
The WDs have been showing a decline in intensity in the past few years due to changing climate. The trend continued in the post-monsoon and winter seasons of 2023 as well.
From October 1, 2023 to January 2, 2024, 16 WDs have affected India — five in October, five in November and six in December — out of which only three have been intense and caused rainfall, according to data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), analysed by Down To Earth (DTE).
This has caused rainfall deficits in states like Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. While Uttarakhand experienced 47 per cent less rains than normal from October 1 to December 27, the deficit in Himachal Pradesh was 40 per cent, according to data from IMD.
Eight out of the 13 districts of Uttarakhand had deficient rainfall (20-59 per cent less rainfall than normal) and four of them suffered from large deficient (greater than 60 per cent deficit) rainfall. Udham Singh Nagar district had the maximum deficit of 87 per cent. 
In Himachal Pradesh, four districts had deficient rainfall and two had large deficient rainfall. Lahaul and Spiti district had the maximum deficit of 73 per cent.
“Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand received deficient precipitation since western disturbances during the post-monsoon were weak in nature,” Akshay Deoras, a research scientist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science and Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, United Kingdom, told DTE.
“The western disturbance activity witnessed a southward dip in December, causing good rainfall over central India, but either deficient or scanty rainfall over most of northern India in December,” he added. 
Towards the end of November, a moderately intense WD interacted with a lower level trough in the easterlies and chased significant rainfall in central and western Indian states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
“The northwest rainfall reduction is consistent with the general decreasing trend in western disturbances and the precipitation drop over the region. But the El Nino also tends to produce colder winters over parts of this region,” Raghu Murtugudde, a climate scientist at the University of Maryland and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, told DTE.
Murtugudde predicted that the pre-monsoon season will be warmer and probably get more rainfall because of the Arabian Sea warming. “If the summer transitions to a La Niña then we should have excess rainfall during the monsoon season,” he concluded.

The drought mercifully ended on 20March2024 in Kalimpong and also the rest of
.Sub - Himalayan WB and SIkkim with thundershowers commencing at 2.30am.
The weather systems which affected us and the cloud image is shown below:

For the past few days we have had welcome light rain in our region. Rainfall totals from 20-22Mar2024 are given below:
Darjeeling 118.6mm  Kalimpong  67.2mm  Bagdogra  92.1mm  Gangtok 46.2mm

NH10 status
We have reported extensively on the impact of the GLOF on roads and bridges in our earlier blogs including one exclusively on the part of NH10 which is now causing massive traffic jams here.
What is alarming is that after absolutely no rain for months, the first light/moderate rainfall can disrupt our communication lines so much - an issue which was pointed out by us in the report submitted to the NDMA & SDMAs of W Bengal and Sikkim on 10Nov2023.
Excerpt of the report is below

I shudder to think what will be the condition and status of NH10 when the SW monsoons set in a few months time.

Traffic jams today at Chitrey (top) and Teesta bazar on NH10

Landslide at Likhu Bhir (NH10) on 21Mar2024
(Images from Hazard Alerts What'sApp group - many thanks:)

NH10 and alternate routes in the Kalimpong- Sikkim area

Kalimpong District Administration's What'sApp message on 21Mar2024 advising alternate routes

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