Kalimpong landslides

The torrential rainfall of 30th June / 1st July in Darjeeling, northern India triggered large numbers of landslides, causing a substantial number of deaths.  The Save the Hills blog has set out to document the landslides in the Kalimpong area, an exceptionally useful achievement.  I don’t intend to reproduce their report here, but will highlight a few aspects.  First, they have produced a map of the landslides, and are willing to make the coordinates of them available:

Save the Hills

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This is landslide number 1, which killed two people:

Save the Hills

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These are other major landslides in Kalimpong:

Save the Hills

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Save the Hills

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There are many more images on the Save the Hills website.  I continue to share the view with Save the Hills that many of the landslides could be avoided with simple good management of the slopes.  There is much to learn from elsewhere – this increase in losses from landslides in Darjeeling is both unnecessary and avoidable.