GSI team to visit affected areas of Darjeeling

Amitava Banerjee , HT, Darjeeling, 6 July 2015: A GSI team is scheduled to visit the Darjeeling Hills on July 8 to take stock of the situation following the spate of tremors followed by killer slides in which 32 persons were killed and eight are still missing.

Incessant rainfall on Tuesday resulted in multiple slides all over the Darjeeling Hills with the Kalimpong sub-division and Mirik worst-affected. As per official figures 1,876 persons have been affected. With the bodies of two missing persons recovered on Sunday and Monday the landslide death toll in Darjeeling Hills has touched 32. Eight are still missing.

Search operations are still on by Sashashtra Semma Bal, National Disaster Response Force and civil defence.

The National Highway 10 connecting Sikkim with the plains of Siliguri has been opened to vehicular traffic with the massive landslide at Setijhora, 28 km from Siliguri, cleared.

Residents of Limbu Gaon and surrounding areas in Tingling Tea Estate, Mirik have been constantly pressuring the state government and district administration to be relocated since the September 18, 2011 earthquake which has made the land unstable. Coupled with this, incessant rainfall on Tuesday triggered the landslides.

There are 80-odd families residing in Limbugaon. The killer slide at Limbugaon on Tuesday swept away 19 villagers. Sixteen bodies have been recovered while three are still missing. Panic-stricken residents do not want to return to Limbugaon and are spending nights at relief camps. On if the residents would be relocated to safer grounds, Anurag Srivastava, district magistrate, Darjeeling said: “We will take a decision after the search operations are over and normalcy returns. A GSI team will visit Darjeeling on July 8. They will survey the affected areas. Much will depend on their expert opinion.”

After visiting the landslide-affected areas at Tingling, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said she would write to the Centre requesting a survey of the Hills by a GSI team. It has been a longstanding demand by Save the Hills, an NGO working in the landslide-affected areas of Darjeeling that a GSI circle station should be opened up in the Hills.

The residents of Limbugaon bulk petitioned the block development officer, district magistrate and North Bengal development minister citing the grave risks involved in residing in the area following the September 2011 quake.

Dipesh Thapa, a resident of Limbugaon, said the Mirik BDO had responded to their memorandum for relocation dated July 18, 2013. The BDO apprised the district magistrate, Darjeeling along with the executive engineer- irrigation and waterways on the plight of the residents.

After a field visit, the Mirik BDO reported: “It is found there is a huge landslide that has directly affected the villages and it is beyond the capacity of the establishment to protect the landslide-affected areas.”

The BDO in July 2013 further reported: “The present condition at Limbugaon is deplorable. Everyday landslides are posing a severe threat to the village. Due to unmanned drain system, rainwater directly flows into cracks developed due to landslide and depression of land surface due to 2011 September earthquake. Moreover the land is gradually sinking, developing more cracks.”

“It is because of sheer criminal negligence of the district administration and tea garden management that so many valuable lives have been lost,” said SS Ahluwalia, Darjeeling MP.