Why landslides are an unknown disaster form..

• Only 15% of the Indian landmass is affected by landslides and many of the affected areas are in remote inaccessible places.
• Landslides are typically a recurrent form of "small disaster", which gets ignored at the national level in comparison to extreme and extraordinary "high impact" events such as earthquakes.
  Yet the attrition, cumulative loss and impact on development caused by landslides over years often exceeds that caused by the infrequently occurring mega disasters.
  
• Statistics for recorded wrongly. Most often losses due to landslides are attributed to events which trigger them eg losses and deaths between 25-27May2009 in Darjeeling are ascribed to Cyclone AILA and not to landslides.
  This leads to an erroneous and deceptively low loss/damage rates being reported for landslides.
• Govt and media parameters (in India) of judging the severity of landslides are confused and needs to be made exact and precise in order that a landslide can be evaluated correctly.
  As on date govt and media still report the severity of a landslide in terms of the number of houses "fully or partially" damaged or the number of lives lost.
  On 19Aug2009 in Kalimpong landslides, triggered by high intensity rains caused huge damages to roads and infrastructure such as bridges/culverts and caused much loss of farmland. Fortunately no one died.
  Media and govt reports still stuck to reporting the losses in terms of "numbers of houses partially and fully damaged".
  This confused method of assessment leads to an under reporting and incorrect estimation of the scale of the devastation by the hazard.
  
  Praful Rao
  

What took place and what's in the offing...

04-06 Nov2009 (Second India Disaster Management Congress, New Delhi)
STH had submitted an abstract on “Landslide Hazard Case Study: The dire need for a comprehensive, long term solution to the landslide problem at Chibo - Pashyor villages, Kalimpong, District Darjeeling, W Bengal”, under the theme "Mass Movements (Landslides and Avalanches)" for the Second India Disaster Management Congress, at Vigyan Bhavan on the above dates.
I am glad to inform all that it was accepted by the Review Committee of the Congress, as such STH stands officially invited to attend the Congress. I am happy that this gives us an opportunity to highlight our problem at a national forum.20Nov2009
World renowned geomorphologist, Prof Leszek Starkel of the Polish Academy of Sciences will be with us in Kalimpong once again and this time we will be holding a one day workshop here on "Landslide Hazards in the Darjeeling/ Sikkim Himalaya"
I enclose a small writeup on the Professor:-
Prof Leszek Starkel

He was born in 1931, in Wierzbnik, Poland.
He began his scientific career in the Institute of Geography of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Professor Starkel has been active on the international stage by participating in over 100 congresses and workshops in 37 countries, among them seven IGU congresses and all five congresses of the International Association of Geomorphologists.
In addition to his European work, his field studies have been in Asia, India, Mongolia and China, and his work has been recognized by leading geographical societies in Hungary, Slovakia and Sweden and he is an Honorary Member of the International Union for Quaternary Research.
Also Professor Starkel is noted for his close links with geographers in India through his work on floods and landslides in the Darjeeling Himalaya.
He has been visiting India since 1968 and has been involved in International Bilateral Collaboration of Scientists programme between Polish Academy of Sciences & Indian National Academy of Sciences since the Year 1985.

Praful Rao