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 30th 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 30th 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.
