Darjeeling Landslides

Why in News?

Recently as many as 14 people have been killed in multiple landslides triggered by heavy rain in the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of West Bengal.

What is a Landslide?

• Landslide – It is literally land mud, rocks, debris sliding down a slope.
• Landslides occur when the force of gravity becomes stronger than whatever ‘glue’ was holding this material together.

The glue can be a combination of various factors, including tree roots holding soil together, the gradient of a slope, the weight and mass of the soil, channels available for water to move through the soil and down the slope, etc.

• Contributing factors – The reason heavy rain often triggers landslides is that water makes the soil heavier and also reduces friction, making it easy for the soil and rocks to slide down a slope.
• In India, especially in the hills, unplanned construction has worsened matters.
• Buildings and roads are often built without accounting for how much load a slope can hold.
• Improper drainage networks leave water with no avenue to flow out safely.
• Vulnerability of India – About 0.42 million square km of India’s landmass, or about 13% of its area, spread over 15 states and four Union Territories, is prone to landslides, according to the Geological Survey of India (GSI).
• This covers almost all the hilly regions in the country.
• About 0.18 million square km, or 42% of this vulnerable area is in the Northeastern region, where the terrain is mostly hilly.
• Vulnerability of Darjeeling – Darjeeling, known for its beauty and salubrious climate, has been a victim of several natural disasters in the past.
• Available records show that massive landslides occurred in 1899, 1934, 1950, 1968, 1975, 1980, 1991 and more recently in 2011 and 2015.
• The year 1968 saw devastating floods, also in October, killing over a thousand people.

What are main reasons for intensification of landslides in Darjeeling?

• Increasing population – The population in the hills has increased, mainly because of influx from the plains and neighbouring countries.
• The land-and-property-buying spree recorded metamorphic changes in the last three decades.
• Climate change impact – The impact of climate change has been quite distinctly visible in the changing rainfall pattern.
• The rainfall that remained fairly spread over from May and September has now become more intense and incessant, lasting for just a few hours over a few days.
• What is locally known as ‘mushaldhare varsha’ (intense rainfall) has replaced the traditional steady and smooth ‘sawnaay jhari’ (monsoon shower).
• Changes in river course – Rivers and jhoras (streams) have shown unprecedented course changes.
• They are generating new paths for hydrological flows and intrusions into human habitations and livelihoods.
• Pressure of development – Heavy, unsuitable and unsustainable development projects, like hydro power, railways, hotels and other installations, have been a massive onslaught on the limited carrying capacity of these hills.
• Flooding – The flooding of river beds, streams-jhora sidelines and other natural corridors with unplanned and unauthorised settlements have triggered arterial clogging.
• Lack of dedicated agency – Besides the relatively weaker institution of the District Collector, there is no professional agency to handle such devastation.
• Shortage of skill and funds – The local administrative institutions have neither the knowledge nor skills to handle such disasters, nor the funds, techniques, technology and manpower to effectively deal with these dangerous trends.
• Lack of solid waste management – The municipalities in the hills do not even have a simple solid waste management unit.
• This itself has become a major disaster-causing factor.
• Deficiency in responses – There is a lack of urgency with Central and state governments in both forewarning the hill communities and also in managing the aftermath of damages.
• Lack of early warning – Because an adequate early warning system is yet to be developed.
  • For example, cyclone warning generally comes well in advance for evacuation and relief efforts to mobilise.
• Some early warning systems have been developed, on a trial basis at a few locations in Kerala, Sikkim, and Uttarakhand.

What were the warnings provided by institutions and publications?

• Landslide Atlas of India 2023 – It was published by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
• It ranked Darjeeling, 35th and as the most exposed area among 147 districts.
• The State of Environment Report 1991 – It was published by the non-profit Centre for Science and Environment.
• It stated that during 1902-1978, there were nine cloud burst occurrences in the Teesta Valley.
• Role of NGOs – Several local NGOs, including Save the Hills led by Col Praful Rao of Kalimpong, have been highlighting these threats on social media and also through substantive debates and awareness campaigns.
• Sikkim GLOF – The Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) in Sikkim in October 2023, triggered by the Lhonak lake breach, was very emphatically warned about in the Sikkim Human Development Report 2001.
• This GLOF not only claimed many human lives, it swept away the 1200-mw Chungthang Hydro power project.
• It also destroyed several public and military installations, and caused an estimated damage of over Rs 25,000 crore, almost 60% of the GDP of Sikkim of 2022-23.

• Institutional inefficiency – The most blatant example of this institutional failure is the state of damage in Darjeeling and Kalimpong that remains unattended after the GLOF.
  • For instance, in the Teesta Bazar area, river water continues to crisscross the highways, blocking the flow of people, goods and services almost every week.
• National security ramifications – Climate change-triggered impacts have dangerous portents and very deleterious national security ramifications in Darjeeling and surrounding areas.
• Foreign exchange losses – Many of Darjeeling’s products have played a role in India’s globalisation journey such as
  • Its famous tea
  • Cultivation of anti-malarial drugs like quinine
  • Mt Kanchenjunga-led natural beauty and tourism
  • Educational institutions
• All these historically crucial bastions of India’s foreign exchange earnings have been doubly affected and eroded by climate change.
• The long-standing demand – There has been a long standing demand from people and various organisations to
  • Set up a national institution including on climate change studies and disaster management that would cater to the entire Himalayan regions of India, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and the Tibet region.
  • To convert the historic Forest Rangers College in Kurseong as the first climate change studies and management centre in the Eastern Himalayas.
• The demand remain unaddressed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in Delhi.

What lies ahead?

• A National Landslide Risk Management Strategy was finalised in 2019 but more work needs to be done.
• Given the Darjeeling district’s sensitive geopolitical location at the chicken’s neck, its politico-development status has to be now determined exclusively from the national security perspective.
• It has to be a national interest project in India’s Act East Policy context.

References

1. The Indian Express| Darjeeling landslides
2. The Indian Express| Disaster in Darjeeling