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
SaveTheHills(STH) is a group of concerned citizens who are raising awareness about landslides in Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya. Many landslides are the direct or indirect result of human interference and preventable if sufficient care is taken. As such, unless we begin a comprehensive and sustained program towards landslide management, prevention and mitigation, the consequences of ignoring years of human callousness will, in the future be devastating.
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:
Source: IMD Gangtok (Sikkim)
Praful Rao
Kalimpong district
Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya
savethehills@gmail.com
9475033744
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:
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 13Apr2024My thanks to Mr Mukesh Sharma, reporter from Kalimpong for sharing these images with STHMap showing trouble spots at Pedong and Toong |
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 PedongLikhu Bhir landslides on NH10 (Nov2023) |
Wooden bridge at Toong in Feb2024 |
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 RaoDuring 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
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
NH10 and Likhu Bhir in 2017 & 2023 |
NH10 and alternate routes |
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.
Rockfall at Likhu Bhir after rains on 23Mar2024Traffic jam at Chitrey (Teesta) due to rock fall at Likhu Bhir, 23Nov2024Traffic jam at Likhu Bhir on 24Jan2024 at around 6pm |
File photo from July2019 |
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 NiƱa
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
Traffic jams today at Chitrey (top) and Teesta bazar on NH10Landslide at Likhu Bhir (NH10) on 21Mar2024 (Images from Hazard Alerts What'sApp group - many thanks:) |
SaveTheHills (STH) and Junkeri Studio (JS) of Kalimpong have documented the Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) disaster of 04Oct2023 extensively in this blog and while doing so we visited numerous places, maybe 20 or so in the Teesta Valley both in W Bengal and Sikkim.
On 17/18Nov2023 we were in Chungthang, North Sikkim where the GLOF destroyed the 1200MW Sikkim Urja dam and saw the humungous devastation there. We interviewed scores of people and photograph them and published the report in our blog – which has been well received all over.
Having gone that far, we were unable to visit Lachen, a small town 39 km north of Chungthang because the roads were totally destroyed by the GLOF. We did make an attempt but the road ceased to exist approximately 5 km north of Chungthang – the road continues to be non-operational even today.
STH/JS: You mentioned visiting the Lachen Chu river a number of times after 04Oct2023 – can you describe the scene? Were there any landslides? And how did people from Lachen spend the next few days after the GLOF?
DL: The power supply and mobile networks went dead from 04Oct2023 – people were scared and moved here and there, trying to find out what was happening. We noticed the river was still swelling up and there were lots of landslides taking place in and around. When we went to Zema where there was a bridge which connected Lachen to Thangu, we found that the landscape had changed totally, we could not recognize where the bridge was. The whole day the river was flowing at the same high level.
Two days or so later when we went towards Zema again , we found a huge increase in landslide activity all along the road.
STH/JS: We are aware that a Swiss and Govt of India team had gone upto South Lhonak Glacier (in 2023) – did they go through Lachen?
DL: We heard about that too but I do not know the details. People were in fact blaming them for what happened – and believe that they may have done something. We believe our lakes are sacred and do pujas and visit monasteries while visiting these (holy) places.
STH/JS: Which is the nearest lake from Lachen?
DL: By road, it is Gurudongma lake
STH/JS: How much time would it take to reach South Lhonak lake from Lachen?
DL: Now there is a motorable road to Zanak 2 where they have the last ITBP camp and that takes around 6hrs from Lachen. Beyond that I have no idea.
STH/JS: Do you know whether (the ITBP camp at) Zanak 2 was affected by the GLOF?
DL: I think so, I think I saw some photographs.
STH/JS: Have people returned to Lachen from Thangu?
DL: Yes, its wintertime and its not possible to stay in Thangu. Everyone has returned but some are in Gangtok and others in Siliguri etc and children have returned to school.
STH/JS: What is the approximate economic loss which took place due to the GLOF say in terms of loss of farmland,destruction of orchards etc
DL: I can say we have lost a lot of land – pasture land for example. Our dairy animals go to lower altitudes during winters, to places like Denga which was a little above Chungthang. These areas have been washed away by the GLOF. People are now living on the roadside at Rabong and so on. Further, I think in terms of loss, all of Sikkim has been impacted - shops, hotels and so on . I am sure the loss is huge and in many crores.
STH/JS: Do you know of any loss to Govt departments including the army?
DL:
Fisheries department have lost some trout farms, animal husbandry
department have lost their angora farm, Tibetan sheep have lost their
grazing land and so on.