Darjeeling: Incessant rain in the Darjeeling Hills triggered a number of landslides on Sunday. The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued ‘Yellow’ and ‘Orange’ thunderstorm, lightning and heavy rainfall warnings for the North Bengal districts, till May 21.
On Sunday, a landslide was triggered at Giddapahar on National Highway 110 (earlier NH 55) in Mandir Bustee below Ram Mandir, on the outskirts of Kurseong town owing to heavy rainfall. The area lies below The houses of Ranju Chettri and Vijay Thapa were partially damaged while the houses of Pankaj Dey and S Lama are vulnerable.
“Work on the widening of the NH110 is underway with the stones and debris stacked on the road. With heavy rains and clogged drains, the water did not find an outlet and flooded the road, finally a landslide occurred bringing all the debris below the road.
It occurred at around 5:30 am on Sunday,” stated Ranju Chettri. However, there are no reports of any loss of life or injury.
A huge tree was uprooted blocking the National Highway 10 to Sikkim near the PWD Bungalow near Kalijhora on Sunday morning. Traffic was disrupted for sometime. Later, the tree was removed and traffic resumed.
In the past 24 hours, rainfall recorded at 8:30 am on Sunday in Darjeeling was 7 mm and in Kalimpong 11 mm. IMD has issued a ‘Yellow Warning’ for heavy rains (7-11 cm) thunderstorms (with wind speeds of 40-50 kmph) and lightning from May 19 till May 21.