SU combines quake relief with scientific study

GANGTOK, 12 Oct: Sikkim University earthquake relief teams comprising faculty members, management staff and students which went on a relief and reconnaissance mission in collaboration with the Voluntary Health Association of Sikkim (VHAS) and it sister NGOs like Navjyoti Kala Samiti, Community Health and Environment Conservation Society and Nagbeli Conservation Association have now returned from some of the worst hit areas of North, West and East Sikkim, informs a release from the University.
The teams undertook need-based assessment and channelized relief material to some of the isolated villages like Katam and Bring, which were completely cut off.  These locations had neither communication links nor any relief materials reaching there, the release informs.
The University team comprising multidisciplinary faculty members did in situ observation and preliminary investigations. It was observed that earthquake caused disproportionate damage. The post monsoon rainfall further aggravated the situation causing loss of human lives and extensive damage in different parts of Sikkim.
As part of their relief work the team covered 6 villages in the North, 15 in the West and 6 in the East district.  As some of the affected villages in Mangan were flooded with relief materials, the team mostly concentrated on the less accessible and isolated villages which had little access to these relief materials. The team gathered information from local people and requested concerned agencies to rush food and other essential items to these villages cut off due to landslides and washing away of bridge over Bring Kyong. According to the release, the request from the University team to army helicopters and Food and Supplies Department of the Government of Sikkim resulted in these agencies providing succor to the hapless victims.
Initial investigations by members of the University team belonging to Department of Earth Sciences and Department of Geography and Natural Resource Management pointed out that this tremor was not due to usual thrusting but due to unusual  strike-slip faulting, a mechanism where fault system slide side to side when two tectonic plates converge. The team also observed that most of the slides appeared to be on the slopes that face towards the east and the south, while there are only few on the slopes that face to the west.
The satellite images taken by NASA after the earthquake and the given directionality taken from the field emphasize the fact that they are clearly very fresh. The majority was triggered by the earthquake and it is possible that some were triggered by post monsoon rainfall ahead of the earthquake.
The release further informs that experts in the team opined that the loss of life and severe damages were the direct consequences of poor design and construction practices carried out in an inadequate professional environment. This has been accentuated by the lack of trained human resources in the state.
According to preliminary investigations, though a semblance of normalcy is returning in the affected areas, their economic recovery and rehabilitation are still a far cry. The team also observed the serious lack and conspicuous absence of a full fledged institution to comprehensively and instantly deal with such disasters and calamities in the State.
The Sikkim University team suggests a multidisciplinary approach to propose future policy program to disaster management that must include communications, transport, housing, water supply, sanitation and health care system and which can withstand any such unpredictable disasters to reduce losses of human lives and property. Broadly, such losses include loss of lives, buildings, infrastructures, economic sources, cultural institutions, and psychological trauma.
At the same time Sikkim as a state requires a comprehensive Disaster Management Plan to deal with all future calamities and disaster. Sikkim University was once requested by the Government of Sikkim to undertake and prepare a comprehensive disaster management plan for the State, which was completed well in time by the University.
The team consulted a range of institutions including National Disaster Management Authority in the preparation of the same. However, this vital Plan document could not be handed over to the Government of Sikkim as the concerned Department suddenly developed cold feet in accepting this report, the release expresses.
The need of the hour is for a scientific investigation in these landslides prone areas based on geological, geotechnical and engineering analysis of the stability of landslides and mass wasting, the release states. The University team has also decided to launch a ‘second phase of multipronged back-up program’ with sensitization and capacity building of the local community.
The future direction of research is to translate ‘hazards science and social science’ into ‘science for policy and decision making’ and provide instruments, advice and services. Sikkim University has been keen to focus on developing scientific and community leadership across the local community in Sikkim Himalaya by increasing the outreach of the University research community to act together to make Sikkim a safer place to live in, the release further adds.