“LOCALISED NATURE OF LANDSLIDES MAKES PLANNERS LESS SERIOUS IN ADDRESSING IT”
ANAND OBEROI
GANGTOK, 05 July: Landslides have been a devastating accompaniment to living in the hills, and people in these parts have grappled with its destruction for centuries. Its common occurrence in the region, a lived-with reality for the people, appears to have unfortunately lost its credibility as a natural disaster worthy of special attention in the files of the National Disaster Risk Management [NDRM] office at the Centre.
This localized impact of landslides has led the rest of the country, especially NDRM to believe that the affect of this form of natural disasters is “not a major threat” against other disasters such as earthquakes, droughts, tsunamis or floods which takeup priority in disaster management and rehabilitation related activities in the country.
This was claimed by Prafulla Rao of Kalimpong based NGO, Save the Hills who has been working dedicatedly to highlight the effects of landslides and how it affects the local population in the region. He was addressing media persons during the two day workshop on the role of Press and Media in disaster management reporting organized at Rumtek by GIZ, Germany, Kanchenjunga Conservation committee [KCC] and the Press Club of Sikkim.
According to Mr. Rao, landslides are probably the only form of a disaster in which people can lose their land completely, the risk posed by this hazard is often underestimated since casualties caused by rain-induced landslides are often tabulated under cyclone or storm disasters, and casualties caused by earthquake-induced landslides are often ascribed to earthquake disasters hence the casualties figures under landslides are misleading.
He shared that since landslides affect only 15% of the Indian landmass against 59% to earthquakes; this form of natural disaster has remained ignored also since most of the landslides occur in rural areas and affected people seldom speak out.
He added that the database and inventory of landslides is invariably incomplete and is mainly restricted to those taking place along highways and the correct rate and scale of devastation is underestimated.
A good example of this can be seen in the number of landslides above the Government Food Preservation factory [GFPF] at Singtam which cutoff Gangtok for almost a week in August last year. The road block at Singtam still remains fresh in the memories of many as even transshipment was an ordeal for the hundreds of people who had to traverse it. However, even after such a major slide in the area, none of the concerned authorities, including the Land Revenue and Disaster Management department which heads the disaster management cell, has done anything concrete in the area. Dokey, a village above the slide zone is still in a precarious position with every rain bringing the fear of landslides and a major disaster for the 15 odd houses here at the source of the slide.
Karma Zimpa, Managing Director, GFPF, Singtam told this reporter that the land around and above the factory has become very unstable in recent years carrying the possibility of a bigger disaster. He informed that the factory lost Rs.85 lakh during last year’s slide. He mentioned that the workers who lost their belongings to the slide had not been paid adequate compensation and even after such a massive disaster, there was no disaster management plan for the factory personnel, which means that the factory workers are still unaware of the do’s and don’ts during slides even after being in the news headlines last year.
The MD also informed that he had made a trip to the source of the slide, Dokey, a village above, where he found that large crevasses had formed which was taking in water and further loosening the soil on the hill. He also informed that the texture of the soil was extremely sandy and that a major disaster was on the cards if nothing was done in this regard.
Villagers in the area inform that apart from a few visits by officials of the RM&DD and collection of data, nothing much has happened in the area in the past one year.
“We are still exposed to danger located above a slide prone zone, no jhora or stream training works have been initiated here, water is seeping continuously into the ground, loosening the soil and devastating the foundations of our homes. Houses are cracked or are sinking; the mud has lost its texture and is turning sandy. Fields have lost fertility and we are hanging by a thin thread with none of the concerned authorities having the slightest idea of what the monsoons this year will bring .” says a local resident of the area.
It may be informed that mega disasters such as earthquakes & floods hog the headlines and receive political attention but the cumulative effect of this recurrent and insidious disaster form maybe far more. Even the scientific community’s obsession with the technical aspects of landslides and insufficient attention given to the human side of landslides has resulted in the present day scenario.
“Government reports are often based on wrong preconceptions as to how many people died and how many houses were fully destroyed or partially destroyed? This is also a serious problem since it takes away the importance of a landslide from the disaster management related activities as prescribed by the centre,” informs the representative from Save the Hills.
Another reason as mentioned by Mr. Rao is that in most of the Disaster Management seminars and workshops, landslides receive little or no attention which proves that there is little awareness or understanding of this disaster form even amongst Disaster Management professionals like the NDRF who have specifically not been trained on landslides. Before concluding, he added that there were Tsunami warning systems in place but no landslide warning options yet.
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| A house at Dokey village above the landslide zone stretching from NH 31A along Government Food Preservation Factory, Singtam, to the slope above. The village has around 15 houses, all of which have developed cracks and is sinking because of the slide below. The villagers inform that no government authority has paid any heed to their problems beyond the initial days of the landslide. Worryingly, most of the houses, despite their warped structures, are still occupied. The residents are making do with patchwork repairs of little consequence. The local economy is also suffering. This photograph is of a house which had a small-scale mineral water bottling unit which has downed shutters as the building has tilted and could collapse at any moment. |
GANGTOK, 05 July: Landslides have been a devastating accompaniment to living in the hills, and people in these parts have grappled with its destruction for centuries. Its common occurrence in the region, a lived-with reality for the people, appears to have unfortunately lost its credibility as a natural disaster worthy of special attention in the files of the National Disaster Risk Management [NDRM] office at the Centre.
This localized impact of landslides has led the rest of the country, especially NDRM to believe that the affect of this form of natural disasters is “not a major threat” against other disasters such as earthquakes, droughts, tsunamis or floods which takeup priority in disaster management and rehabilitation related activities in the country.
This was claimed by Prafulla Rao of Kalimpong based NGO, Save the Hills who has been working dedicatedly to highlight the effects of landslides and how it affects the local population in the region. He was addressing media persons during the two day workshop on the role of Press and Media in disaster management reporting organized at Rumtek by GIZ, Germany, Kanchenjunga Conservation committee [KCC] and the Press Club of Sikkim.
According to Mr. Rao, landslides are probably the only form of a disaster in which people can lose their land completely, the risk posed by this hazard is often underestimated since casualties caused by rain-induced landslides are often tabulated under cyclone or storm disasters, and casualties caused by earthquake-induced landslides are often ascribed to earthquake disasters hence the casualties figures under landslides are misleading.
He shared that since landslides affect only 15% of the Indian landmass against 59% to earthquakes; this form of natural disaster has remained ignored also since most of the landslides occur in rural areas and affected people seldom speak out.
He added that the database and inventory of landslides is invariably incomplete and is mainly restricted to those taking place along highways and the correct rate and scale of devastation is underestimated.
A good example of this can be seen in the number of landslides above the Government Food Preservation factory [GFPF] at Singtam which cutoff Gangtok for almost a week in August last year. The road block at Singtam still remains fresh in the memories of many as even transshipment was an ordeal for the hundreds of people who had to traverse it. However, even after such a major slide in the area, none of the concerned authorities, including the Land Revenue and Disaster Management department which heads the disaster management cell, has done anything concrete in the area. Dokey, a village above the slide zone is still in a precarious position with every rain bringing the fear of landslides and a major disaster for the 15 odd houses here at the source of the slide.
Karma Zimpa, Managing Director, GFPF, Singtam told this reporter that the land around and above the factory has become very unstable in recent years carrying the possibility of a bigger disaster. He informed that the factory lost Rs.85 lakh during last year’s slide. He mentioned that the workers who lost their belongings to the slide had not been paid adequate compensation and even after such a massive disaster, there was no disaster management plan for the factory personnel, which means that the factory workers are still unaware of the do’s and don’ts during slides even after being in the news headlines last year.
The MD also informed that he had made a trip to the source of the slide, Dokey, a village above, where he found that large crevasses had formed which was taking in water and further loosening the soil on the hill. He also informed that the texture of the soil was extremely sandy and that a major disaster was on the cards if nothing was done in this regard.
Villagers in the area inform that apart from a few visits by officials of the RM&DD and collection of data, nothing much has happened in the area in the past one year.
“We are still exposed to danger located above a slide prone zone, no jhora or stream training works have been initiated here, water is seeping continuously into the ground, loosening the soil and devastating the foundations of our homes. Houses are cracked or are sinking; the mud has lost its texture and is turning sandy. Fields have lost fertility and we are hanging by a thin thread with none of the concerned authorities having the slightest idea of what the monsoons this year will bring .” says a local resident of the area.
It may be informed that mega disasters such as earthquakes & floods hog the headlines and receive political attention but the cumulative effect of this recurrent and insidious disaster form maybe far more. Even the scientific community’s obsession with the technical aspects of landslides and insufficient attention given to the human side of landslides has resulted in the present day scenario.
“Government reports are often based on wrong preconceptions as to how many people died and how many houses were fully destroyed or partially destroyed? This is also a serious problem since it takes away the importance of a landslide from the disaster management related activities as prescribed by the centre,” informs the representative from Save the Hills.
Another reason as mentioned by Mr. Rao is that in most of the Disaster Management seminars and workshops, landslides receive little or no attention which proves that there is little awareness or understanding of this disaster form even amongst Disaster Management professionals like the NDRF who have specifically not been trained on landslides. Before concluding, he added that there were Tsunami warning systems in place but no landslide warning options yet.
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