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THE “QUEEN OF HILLS” - DARJEELING HIT BY DEADLY LANDSLIDES – DEATH TOLL RISES TO 40

16 STILL MISSING

 

Darjeeling or “The Queen of Hills”; a town in the Himalayan foothills of the West Bengal State of India; was hit by deadly landslides on 30^th June, 2015 night. Death tolls are increasing day by day and has reached up to 40. Moreover, multiple landslides have caused extensive damage to national highways NH-10 and NH-55 and have damaged many homes as well.

Due to the advancement of the tectonic plates of the earth; the Himalayas are often prone to earthquakes since a prolonged time. The situation became grimmer, by the constant fall of the trees onto the hills. Recently, on 25th May 2015; the disastrous earthquake that hit Nepal had affirmed its place in international headlines drawing worldwide attention. This massive earthquake was followed by nearly about 300 aftershocks which spread fear throughout Nepal and Darjeeling mainly due to the occurrence of plenty of splits and cracks on the mountains in Nepal and Bhutan. On 30^th June night; the heavy rainfalls intensified the aforementioned which ultimately resulted in the deadly landslides in Darjeeling Himalaya and other places.

The area of occurrence has not only been confined to a single area; rather it has been spread over covering the Tringling (Mirik); 6th 7th 8th & 11th Mile of Kalimpong-I block; Lava,Lingseykha and Chisopani Busty ( Snagsay GP) of Kalimpong-II block with the Tingling Tea Garden being the worst affected especially Bichgaon; where most of the tea garden workers resided and lost their lives to the killer landslide.

 The Chief Minister of West Bengal along with other officials have visited the affected areas. The Indian Government has been dedicating their service mainly for the rescue and relief work in the affected parts.

 This report was created and edited for the organization RCHSS www.rchss.in as an UN online volunteer.