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| 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:
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling- SIkkim Himalaya
9475033744
savethehills@gmail.com
