[DIPECHO Network] landslide hazard in Darjeeling Himalaya

[praful rao]

 Sir,
By way of a brief introduction, I am Wg Cdr Praful Rao (retd) and I belong
to Kalimpong, (dist Darjeeling).
In the first week of Sept 2007, we living in sub Himalayan West Bengal (and
Sikkim) suffered a near disaster due to torrential and unabated rains. It
stopped raining on the 08Sep2007 and just as well, other wise we would have
suffered large scale loss of life and property.
This incident led us to forming SaveTheHills (STH), which as of now is a
group of citizens working towards raising awareness about a natural disaster
which is endemic to but proliferating rapidly in the mountains but which is
still largely unknown to most.

We also firmly believe that sustained action must be taken to prevent and
mitigate this hazard if we are to continue living in these mountains since
the consequences of  ignoring years of human callousness in these mountains
will, in the future, be devastating.
In the year of so that STH has been in existence we have done a lot of work
much of which is documented in our blog

http://www.savethehills.blogspot.com

May I request you to kindly peruse thru the blog?

I would be glad to receive a reply from you since sharing experiences may be
one of the best ways to spread awareness amongst our peoples about a common
hazard.

with regards

Praful Rao