The Hindu Business Line : Living with landslides

Mangan, North Sikkim “Gayo bhains paani ma”, exclaimed Tenzing Norgay, the bubbly driver of the Mahindra jeep carrying the other half of our group from Gangtok to Lachung in North Sikkim.

We had covered barely 10 km from Gangtok and about 100 metres ahead had seen – and heard – a couple of big boulders come crashing down on the road we would have cleared in two minutes. One was a little puzzled as we had not seen any bhains (buffalo) along the way, and asked Neil Law, founder of Himalayan Footprints, an adventure tour organistion that had organised our tour, if the landslide had indeed sent a buffalo crashing into the Teesta river below. “No, no”, he smiled. “In these parts when someone says ‘gayo bhains paani ma’, he means the entire day has gone down the drain.”

We are a group of nine from Chennai on a tour of Sikkim. The rains and landslides have already annihilated our visit to Gurudongmar lake in North Sikkim, at an altitude of 17,600 feet, as the Zema bridge has been washed away. On that particular morning, we were scheduled to visit the famous Phodong monastery on way to Lachung.

Veterans of several Himalayan tours, we were mentally prepared to sacrifice a day if the reigning deity of this range of the Himalayas – Kanchendezonga, decided so. But giving us hope was a BRO (Border Roads Organisation) bulldozer already stationed at the site, so it had obviously seen other landslides earlier in the day or the previous day. Adding to our confidence were Neil’s words: “Don’t worry ma’am, we’ll go”.

To our relief, a Tata Tipper carrying three persons from the GREF (General Reserve Engineering Force), the technical wing of the BRO, reached the spot within five minutes. Omkar Singh Shekhawat, an engineer, jumped out of it, and waving all the people away from the spot, took charge of the bulldozer. The vehicle sprung to life and within 10 minutes, as though by sheer magic, the boulders had been moved and the road cleared for traffic! But how did they come so soon? Rathore Singh, driver of the tipper, waved his mobile phone and explained that earlier that morning and the previous day too, landslides had occurred at the same spot, thanks to continuous rains.

“It had rained through the night and we knew more landslides would occur, so we had just gone somewhere closeby for chaipani. But you can be sure our Sunday is gone,” he said with a shrug.

But our Sunday hadn’t, or so we thought as we cruised to the Phodong monastery, about 36 km from Gangtok. The monks here were very friendly, the chief lama being Neil’s mentor, and after a tour of the magnificent and colourful monastery, we were offered chchadu, a simple savoury made of maize, and tea.

After a sumptuous lunch at Hotel New Northway – the fried fish was awesome and a perfect accompaniment to the chilled Dansberg local beer – we set off on our journey. But within an hour it was brought to a grinding halt by a much bigger landslide that had brought down a mammoth boulder.

At Lanthey, about 5 km from Mangan, the district headquarters of North Sikkim, there was a convoy of vehicles waiting patiently. Dynamite blasting was already on to shatter the huge boulder that was sitting bang in the middle of the slushy road which had been reduced to a brown, watery mess. Two hours of patient wait, and Amar Singh, the driver of yet another bulldozer, signalled a halt to the operation to clear the road as the evening light turned soft, bestowing a different sort of charm to the entire range.

As Neil searched for a night shelter for us at Mangan, each of us quietly mulled over the evils of deforestation and the greed of a few which bestows so much of misery on thousands. For us it was just one unscheduled halt, but the local people have to live with landslides all the time. We also resolved that we wouldn’t crib any more about the state of the roads… would these roads be operational at all but for the BRO?

Response may be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

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