A narrow escape..

On 15Nov2007, supercyclone Sidr slammed into Bangladesh at around 6.30pm local time. Within hours it left approx 250 people dead despite large scale evacuation by the Bangladeshi authorities.
It was just our good luck (and bad luck for those in the east of the country) that after striking Bangladesh the cyclone veered off to the east rather than continue on its earlier northerly course.
Being situated in a part of the country which is susceptible to such hazards it is all the more imperative for us to bolster our defenses and ratchet up our preventive measures against landslides.

(satellite images are from www.imd.gov.in)

praful rao

New posts from Darjeeling

Posted from http://darjeelingnews.net/forumdarjeeling/viewtopic.php?p=224044#224044

thanx to Mr Swaroop Charmling and "Cold Mountain"

Is something is moving?

A rather diverse crowd met under the broad aegis of “savethehills” (organized by the Himalayan Farmer’s Front (HFF), Kalimpong)

The issue - landslides caused by the Sep2007 rains

The meeting began by Mr Yusuf Simick of Farmer’s Front requesting Wg Cdr Praful Rao (retd) to give a presentation on the landslide scenario.

This was done by him highlighting the fact that in Sep2007, the Chief Minister of Sikkim had spoken to the Prime Minister(Chairman, National Disaster Management Authority) about the landslide situation in Sikkim (as per the 06Nov2007 Telegraph report) whereas in the immediate vicinity ie Darjeeling district, both the State Authorities and the DGHC had taken no action whatsoever.

There followed a long discussion amongst the members on the landslide situation and how best to get the Govt / DGHC to take preventive measures at least in the critical areas since the time available was only the dry season (from Dec-May).

Some of the speakers who took part were:-

a) Mr Norden Hishey –rep HFF

b) Mr Mohan Pandey- Agronomist

c) Mr Anmol Prasad- Lawyer

d) Mr UM Pradhan- Civil Engineer

e) Mr PT Bhutia- “save NH31” committee

f) Mr OB Das- Red Cross, Kalimpong

g) Mr Yusuf Simick - rep HFF

Decisions:-

a) “savethehills” would be a campaign by the people to draw the attention of the Govt / DGHC / Media to the destruction caused by the landslides in 2007 and the necessity of preventive rather than post disaster action ie RELIEF.

b) All action would be taken under savethehills banner which would be an apolitical people’s movement devoted (for the time being) to hasten preventive action against landslides by the concerned DGHC / Govt departments since the time available was extremely limited(5months).

c) In order to achieve the above, it was decided that a multipronged attack aimed at mobilizing the Govt / DGHC / Media and so on, was necessary.

d) Since the Chief Minister of West Bengal was visiting Darjeeling on the 23Nov2007, a point was mooted that a group of people from savethehills could meet him and present a memorandum.

e) It was decided to hold a much larger emergency meeting under savethehills banner on Sat, 17Nov2007, at Trizum Hall, Kalimpong to ratify/change the above (point ‘d’) and chart out the future course of action.

______________________________________

Comment by Praful Rao

I am glad to inform you that awareness about the landslide problem is growing here in Kalimpong; there are quite a few meetings where it is being discussed, the local press is covering it well and even our educational institutions are giving this topic as assignments to their students.

This is a welcome change because only an alert public can coerce an inactive government into action.

A small step in the right direction

Minutes of the meeting organised by the Indian Red Cross Society, Kalimpong Branch on the 12/11/2007 at Trysem hall, B.D.O. Office, Kalimpong

1) The meeting was Chaired by Mr. Ganesh Mani Pradhan

2) The following were present:-
Mr. K.N. Pradhan, President Rotary Club of Kalimpong, Mr. O.B. Das of Secreatry, Red Cross Society, Kalimpong Branch,Mrs. Sanjogita Subba, President Hotel and Restaurant Association of Kalimpong (HORAK),Samsher Ali, President Piranha Club, KAlimpong, Mr. B.K. Chettri, Convenor, Krishi Kalyan Sanghatan,Dr HB Chettri, Dr. D.P. Pandey,Mr. P.T. Lama,President Bhalukhop Dev Committee,Ms Gayatri Kharel- Structural Engineer, Miss Iva and Ila Pandey of Kanchenjunga Integrated Development Society (KIDS), Dawa Pemba Sherpa, Sudeep Sunar, Puran Prakash Chettri, Lendup Norgay Bhutia, , Mrs Preeti Rai.

3) Wg Cdr P. Rao (retd) gave a detailed report about the various landslide affected areas he had visited along with other members of various organisations. He further appraised the members present about his meeting with the Principal Secretary, Disaster Management, Govt of W Bengal on 02Nov2007 and the correspondence with the Governor of West Bengal, D.M and other officials and organizations. He stressed the necessity of identifying critical hazard areas and doing preventive work in these areas before the onset of the next monsoons.

4) An open discussion was initiated in the house to find out ways to address the current situation and find out ways to solve the same.

5) The members present resolved that:

a) SavetheHills would be the nodal forum under which all the different organizations would work to act as pressure groups to get preventive work done by Govt/DGHC. Mr. O.B. Das was requested to be the convenor for the time being of this adhoc organization.
b) Ms Gayatri Kharel- Structural Engineer would try and request Dr RK Bhandari, Chairman Centre for Disaster Mitigation and Management, Vellore and a national authority on landslides to visit Kalimpong.
c) KIDS would continue with their awareness programme at Schools and village levels.
d) Dr HB Chettri said he would take the responsibility to spread awareness amongst the grass root levels through extensive coverage in the local Nepali news media.

Dr DP Pandey
Secretary
KIDS
kids.kalimpong@gmail.com

____________________

Comment by Praful Rao

I think this meeting is welcome move.
Tomorrow we have another biggish meeting here in Kalimpong organized by the Himalayan Farmer's Front in the Town Hall where NGOs, people from landslide affected areas around Kalimpong and the Press will be interacting.
I wonder whether something similar is happening in Darjeeling/Kurseong or any other parts of the district?
If not, may I request anyone who is from these areas to take up the cudgel start organizing these meetings so that we can tell the Govt/DGHC that we are NOT interested in HAM radios or plastic sheets or chewra AFTER a landslide; what we are interested in is positive, pre-emptive steps to prevent landslides!

A study in contrasts

Telegraph (Siliguri edition) 06Nov2007.
In September, Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling had requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to send a central team to the state. Chief secretary N.D. Chingapa followed it up by meeting officials of the Prime Minister’s Office and the cabinet secretariat later.

In October, the state government submitted a memorandum to the central relief commissioner in the ministry of home affairs. It included a damage assessment made by the state land revenue and disaster management department.


On the one hand, the landslide situation in September 2007 was viewed serious or grave enough by a Chief Minister of a state to speak directly to the Prime Minister, who is after all the Chairman of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)- the Apex Body for Disaster Management in India.
Would a Chief Minister take such a drastic step unless the situation was really grim?

Right next door in Darjeeling district, where the situation was as serious if not worse, no one in the State Administration nor the DGHC stirred.
I know of a prominent NGO which around 10Sept2007 was searching for any consolidated report on the landslide situation from the Govt- finding none, they forwarded the Survey Report made by savethehills which is on this blogsite (blog entry dated 14Sept2007) to their head office.
In any case, having met the Principal Secretary, Disaster Management, Govt of W Bengal on 02Nov2007 (blog entry dated 03Nov2007), I am quite sure that the neither the Govt of W Bengal nor the district administration think anything grave happened in Sep2007 which warrants any immediate action here in Darjeeling district.

So in mid Nov2007, whereas repairs to roads have started in many places in the district, I am not aware of any work which has commenced with regard to prevention/mitigation of landslides (repair/cleaning/strengthening of our drainage systems or jhoras etc in the short term) and the count down has begun -
we have 5 months to go before the monsoons come right back with a vengeance!

praful rao

A personal perspective

So we have finally hit the “Bureaucratic Wall”, which is near impossible to penetrate ! Congratulations to all of us! This should give us more impetus to break the wall down.

Dushera celebrations are just over, but the bright lights of Dewali are round the bend. The yawning cracks on the roads have been filled up and the fresh scars of the recent landslides are now covered with greenery. The blue skies are back again but political turmoil is silently brewing, threatening to disturb the peace and tranquility of the hills. Tourists who had come to enjoy the beauty of our hills are fleeing and potential tourists have cancelled their bookings. Politicians and their henchmen are busy sharpening their blunt khukuris and the poor common man in the streets and villages, surrounded by insecurity and uncertainty, is confused, worried and wondering from where his next meal will come from! In the midst of all these quick developments, the scary landslides of September 2007 have all but been forgotten!

The great philosopher George Bernhard Shaw had once said – “We learn from history that we don’t learn anything from history!” Me thinks that he is absolutely right. We seem to be a cursed lot, going round and round in endless circles of domination, damnation and doom! Isn’t it a shame that after 60 years of India’s Independence, we are still finding ourselves in “Square One” – groping hopelessly in the dark!

Sorry for the emotional outburst – but I think every one of us feel that way. Coming back to the landslides, I strongly feel that, frustrating as it is, we must not give up. I would like to suggest the following strategy :

1.We must recognize that at the present juncture, we cannot expect anything concrete, or anything at all, from the State Government, Central Government, DGHC, Municipalities and other such Agencies and Departments. They will only be passing the buck and sending us out on a wild goose chase.
2.God helps those who help themselves. Right now, nobody from outside will be willing to stick out his or her neck and spend time and energy to genuinely understand our problems and help us out. If at all they will be speaking from the mouth and not from their hearts, as they are not the affected persons or stakeholders. We will have to help ourselves.
3.Disaster management in Landslides is a relatively new field, unlike floods and earthquakes. Not much is known technically about landslides, why they happen and what can be done to prevent them. This is perhaps why only some relief and no remedial measures have been taken by the Governments. So we will have to undertake some pioneering works (from the actual fields or from the Net and other sources) and feed the data to our Governments who are perhaps the only ones who can take large-scale preventive measures. Of course, the Governments and their various Departments and Agencies should be taking the proactive lead in advance, rather than waiting for disasters to happen first and thereafter acting on ham-radio messages seeking help (this is a ridiculous proposition)! But over the years, we as members of the public have not played a positive role and are ourselves to blame - because of which we get the Governments we deserve!
4.We must realize that there cannot be a simple solution to very complex technical problems that involve landslide prevention. Over and above this, we also have to face other nagging difficulties like Dual Control of Administration by State Government and DGHC; Political disturbances caused by warring factions, leading to nowhere; frustrated or unconcerned Government officials passing the buck; massive financial constraints and what have you!
So we cannot expect miracles to happen overnight – it is going to be a long drawn deliberate problem solving process, with multifaceted dimensions.

5.The “savethehills” blogsite has already played a major role in creating awareness and will continue to attract many more useful comments from all over. I think we should now form a Core Group of smart, concerned people from appropriate fields and have regular “Brain-Storming Sessions BSS” at least once a week focusing on Landslide Prevention – we badly need a Geologist though. We must prepare a Comprehensive Report as early as possible, that will indicate possible short, medium and long-term solutions. A nephew of mine hailing from Kalimpong, Pawan Pradhan, is Director of Technology Applications & Integration, SKIDATA Inc in the USA. He is willing to extend whatever help he can and participate in this great venture.

6.We must hold on to His Excellency, the Governor of West Bengal Mr. Gandhi, who will certainly lend us full support to push through this vital Project for saving our fragile hill areas. We can move through him and take his guidance.

Mr U.M. Pradhan,
Kalimpong

Children of a lesser god ?

Here is an excerpt from the Telegraph (Siliguri edition) 06Nov2007.

Central team in Sikkim - Officials arrive to assess damage caused by rains

PEMA LEYDA SHANGDERPA

Gangtok, Nov. 5: An inter-ministerial central team is in Sikkim to assess the damage caused by rains this year. Landslides, triggered by rain, had killed and injured people and damaged houses and property across the state (see chart). NH31A, the main road linking Sikkim to the rest of the country, was also cut off in many places. The six-member central team is led by R.P. Nath, the joint secretary (administration) in the ministry of home affairs, and has representatives from the Planning Commission and the finance ministry as well as departments of land resources, road transport and drinking water supply. Yesterday, after the members arrived, they met officials of the Sikkim roads and bridges department who made a presentation on the current situation in the state. This morning, they dispersed in three smaller teams to tour North, West and South districts. They will return tomorrow to visit East Sikkim. In September, Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling had requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to send a central team to the state. Chief secretary N.D. Chingapa followed it up by meeting officials of the Prime Minister’s Office and the cabinet secretariat later. In October, the state government submitted a memorandum to the central relief commissioner in the ministry of home affairs. It included a damage assessment made by the state land revenue and disaster management department. According to this assessment, the total damage in the state because of rain this year was Rs 94.41 crore. It does not include the damage to NH31A, which is being assessed independently by the National Highways Authority of India and the Border Roads Organisation, which maintains it. _________________________________________________________ A central team arrives in Sikkim from Delhi to assess the damage caused by the Sep2007 rains because the Chief Minister has spoken to the Prime Minister; whereas in the immediate vicinity and adjacent hills ie Darjeeling district, even our local officials and "VIPs" have not toured the affected areas (many of which have been shown on this website for 2 months now) and which in all probability are in a worse condition than those areas where the central team will be taken to in Sikkim. What irony!! But I am thrilled that this team is in Sikkim because it validates what we at "savethehills" have been saying all along "that our district suffered a silent disaster". High time we woke up and helped ourselves folks, because sadly no one is going to ask that high powered team to hop across to Darjeeling, Kurseong or Kalimpong and assess the damage here... praful rao

Copy of letter handed over to the Principal Secretary (PS), Disaster Management, Govt of W Bengal on 02No2007

To,

The Principal Secretary,

Disaster Management,

Govt. of West Bengal

Preventive/Mitigation measures in management of landslide disasters in the Darjeeling hills

Dear Sir,

In keeping with the Prime Minister’s words regarding a need to shift the focus of disaster management from a “relief-centric” and “post-event” response to “a regime that lays greater emphasis on preparedness, prevention and mitigation”, (PM’s inaugural address in the first Disaster Management Congress, New Delhi, 29-30Nov2006) it is necessary to put in place preventive and mitigation measures to minimize loss of life and property in the event of landslides in the Darjeeling hills.

Therefore, rather than merely stating the obvious as the Darjeeling district administration has done in its website (http://www.darjeeling.gov.in/geography.html) – (Due to landslides) “ The future of the Darjeeling hill areas does not look very bright” – it is imperative to work towards finding a meaningful solution to the problem since unlike earthquakes, to quote the Vellore Declaration 2006 on Indian landslides , “many types of landslides could be avoided or prevented and catastrophes averted through instrumentation, vigil, healthy slope management practices and landslide education”.

The administration is, therefore requested to:-

1. Identify critical and vulnerable landslide zones which if unattended to may in the future monsoons lead to loss of life and property.
2. Investigate the cause of landslides in these areas (which in many cases simply boils down to drainage problems or jhora training).
3. Take immediate preventive measures in these areas on a war footing so as to avert/ reduce landslides as far as possible.

Along with these firefighting measures it will also be necessary to develop a policy/strategy to tackle the serious problem of landslides in the long-term in keeping with all the facets of “Disaster Management” (as defined in the Disaster Management Act 2005) in mind. This, obviously, will require a lot of funds to flow in. Therefore, adequate safeguards must be in place to check corruption and ensure correct and effective utilization of funds.

In Sep2007, we escaped a near disaster. This is borne out by the body of evidence that is available in terms of hillsides which are sliding down, mountains which have developed fissures, farmlands which are devastated and buildings which are cracked and in danger of collapsing; to some extent these areas have been photographed and reports are available on http://www.savethehills.blogspot.com.

In all this, it may require the intervention of not only the government agencies such as the GSI, but NGOs and most importantly the public who will have to participate jointly in trying to prevent landslides since landslides like all disasters are also a social issue.

The essence of disaster management should therefore be anticipating and proactively trying to prevent/reduce hazard due to landslides while being fully prepared for rescue, relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction. Unless these steps are taken with the utmost of seriousness and resolve, landslides will continue to extract insufferable toll in these hill areas.

The above letter was handed over in person to both the PS and the DM, Darjeeling by the undersigned at the end of our meeting with them at Circuit House, Darjeeling


praful rao

Report on the meeting with Mr A Purkayastha (IAS), Principal Secretary, Disaster Management, Govt of West Bengal on 02Nov2007

The meeting was held at the Circuit House, Darjeeling.

The following were present:-

a) Mr A Purkayastha (IAS), Principal Secretary (PS), Disaster Management, Govt of West Bengal.

b) Mr Rajesh Pande (IAS) District Magistrate (DM), Darjeeling District.

c) Mr A Lepcha (WBCS) Asst District Magistrate(ADM), Disaster Management, Darjeeling District.

d) Mrs Zimba (WBCS), ADM General, Darjeeling District.

e) Mrs Sunita Mishra (WBCS), SDO Sadar, Darjeeling.

f) Wg Cdr Praful Rao (retd) – from “savethehills” (9832093746)

g) Mr Bishnu Chettri - from “savethehills” (9332044626)

h) Mr Roshan Rai- from “savethehills” (9932024812)

1) The meeting began at approx 1100hrs with the Principal Secretary (PS) stressing the importance of HAM radio stations in a disaster scenario where there would be a total breakdown of power and communication lines. In this regard he said that the entire district was under Earthquake Hazard Zone IV as such there was a need for carry out mock drills on disaster management. He asked the DM to look into how best HAM radios could be used in the district with the help of NGOs, in this situation. He also clearly stated that the rapid and unchecked growth of multistorey complexes in urban areas would only add to the disaster problem and therefore needs to be addressed.

2) Wg Cdr Praful Rao (retd), drew the attention of the PS and the DM to the landslide situation in Kalimpong by displaying a map of Kalimpong town and its vicinity, where landslide hazard zones were clearly marked. He asked the PS what measures were being adopted for prevention and mitigation of landslides in the future, stressing the need for training “jhoras”. He gave an example of Sindebung where untrained jhoras were doing immense damage and also mentioned Dr Graham’s Homes dispensary area as a critical landslide zone.

3) Other members of “savethehills” forum added information on landslides in the rural areas.

4) This was followed by a discussion regarding the lines of responsibility in disaster management, where the PS clearly stated that:-

a) Prevention of disaster was NOT the responsibility of the Disaster Management Department, Govt of West Bengal since so many of the concerned agencies/departments involved in prevention of landslides were not under him.

b) Under these circumstances he said that the Disaster Management Department could only act as a facilitating and coordinating agency within the many other departments that were engaged directly in preventive work against landslides.

c) The only direct action that his department could take regarding preparedness was through spreading of awareness about landslides and mock drills prior to disaster and then in relief action post disaster.

5) The DM asked the “savethehills” forum to deal directly with Chief Principal Secretary, Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), regarding the preventive measures against landslides since all the concerned departments were under DGHC.

6) The “savethehills” members apprised the PS and the DM about the dilemma this dual responsibility between the State Administration and DGHC was creating with regard to disaster management in the district.

7) The PS instructed the DM to ask the GSI or any other appropriate organization like the IITs to undertake a detailed survey of the landslide affected areas.

8) The meeting ended with “savethehills” forum being asked to collect as much data as was possible on landslides in the district, and passing it onto the DM for onward processing.

A letter stressing the necessity to shift the focus of disaster management from “relief-centric” and “post-event” response, to a regime that lays greater emphasis on preparedness, prevention and mitigation- as per the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh was handed over to the PS and DM by Wg Cdr Praful Rao (retd).

After the 45mins or so we spent at the meeting, what we from “savethehills” wondered was this:-

Just what did we achieve?

Having alerted the government about a possible disaster scenario in the hills, were we, as mere concerned citizens also expected to keep knocking on the doors of different govt /DGHC departments to find out just who would initiate preventive action against landslides?

- since THAT is hopefully, the essence of disaster management.

praful rao

Sindebung - a decade of neglect

Sindebung straddles the underbelly of Kalimpong town and it used to consist of some of the most fertile pieces of farmland close to town - "used to" because today much of the that land has been wasted by the many jhoras (waterways/rivulets) which plough through the fertile farmland.

Consequently land prices have plummeted in Sindebung and you meet many a gaunt, haggard farmer who has lost his only source of income to landslides.
In my many meanderings during the course of the last month or so, I have found that nothing really is as simple as it looks...
you see, Kalimpong town consists of a huge concrete and asphalt area sitting on a ridge and the entire rain water from this area obviously cannot percolate into the soil and so flows into drains as surface run off water.

So the massive amount of rain water from the built-up town areas during the monsoons runs off the surface and drains either into
a) Teesta river valley or
b) Relli river valley

Unfortunately, our municipal drains do not and perhaps CANNOT continue all the way down to the Teesta or Relli rivers so all of them terminate into jhoras...

And that is where the problem begins..

so the same innocuous, gentle mountain brooks of yesteryear have now become voracious, land-crunching, giant jhoras of today fuelled by the surface run–off rain water from not only Kalimpong town but so many little satellite town ships and villages around town.

And more population means

a) more built up areas ie more water going into our jhoras

b) and the more “untrained” jhoras means more areas becoming susceptible to landslides.

From my talks with many people even those in Govt departments, I have learnt that no “training” of jhoras has been undertaken in the Sindebung area for a decade or more because of "lack of funds"; consequently more and more fertile farmland is turning into barren wasteland.

well, that had better change soon, otherwise in not too many years from now, Kalimpong town will also go the Sindebung way

I place here a photographic study of the problem

a) Slide 1- Kalimpong town and below it - the Sindebung landslides (viewed from the opposite hill ie Kankebung)

b) Slide 2 - direction of rain water drainage from the built up areas of Kalimpong town (yellow arrows) which add to the volume of water in our jhoras (blue arrows) causing huge landslides in Sindebung.

c) Slide 3 - the size of the Sindebung slides

d) Slide 4- closeup of a landslide and the jhora responsible - Sindebung, Kalimpong

d) Slide 5 – farmlands which will disappear within the next 5 years or so, if we do not address these problems

(For those with broad band kindly lookup these areas in google earth or wikimapia)


praful rao