Landslide
in front of Anugayalaya/Divyavani, near Loreto Convent, Darjeeling
At around 4:30
am on Tuesday Morning i.e., 9th July, a landslide occurred in front
of Anugayalaya/Divyavani near Loreto Convent (to be precise below Bishop’s
House, NH10).The debris covered the entire road in front of the building which
caused the drain water to enter inside the building (fig. 1.0).
The
landslide took place at the adjoining road (i.e., a road to Anugayalaya’s
Office) on NH10 (Lebong Hill Cart Road).There were few
signs of crack visible on the road in fig 1.2. The slide is measured to be
around 13 metres in height and 6 metres in width. However, to consider the width
of the whole areas, is 30 metres (which is also the length of Pony road). The
rainfall data as measured by IMD over the past 24 hours is 112 mm.
The staffs(Church
and Anugayalaya) witnessed the incident in the morning. Around 4 am in the
morning, they noticed drain water streaming down the slope and slowly leading
to landslide. The slide blocked the road in front of Anugayalaya’s office,
which is also a road leading to Loreto Convent.
The local
residents and the staffs cleared and made a walkable passage for the school
children to walk down to their school. They covered the landslide (fig 1.7).
Till 9 am, no local authorities neither the relief materials were available.
The reason
behind this incident was drain blockage. The drain system was completely blocked
as shown in fig. 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6. So, the drain water along with road/rain
water started flowing/pouring down the slope causing landslide.
The
authorities started to visit the site after 9:30 am. The Irrigation department
came to take measurements then followed by the traffic officials. Assistant
Engineer Mr Anup Das, Central Planning, GTA visited the site as well.
The
Darjeeling municipality engineer department, Mr Prashant Rai (Head of the
engineer department) visited the site. He informed his department workers to
come and start cleaning up the debris. The workers started cleaning the road as
seen in fig 1.8, 1.9 and 2.0. The clearance took till 1:30 pm in the afternoon.
Amit Gurung
SaveTheHills
Darjeeling
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