Rain and thundershowers throw Hill life out of gear

Darjeeling: Rain, gusty winds and thunderstorm threw life out of gear in the Hills of North Bengal on Thursday. Traffic on the National Highway connecting Sikkim was also disrupted owing to land-slips.

From the wee hours of Thursday rains lashed in the hills accompanied by gusty winds and thunderstorms. With daybreak landslips at the 29th Mile area on the National Highway 10 disrupted vehicular traffic.

Incidentally the National Highway 10 is a strategically crucial road connecting the state of Sikkim (having borders with China occupied Tibet) to the plains of

Siliguri.

The mud, rocks and debris constantly falling on the road blocked off vehicular traffic. Many vehicles sunk in the sludge caused by the mud, debris and the rain.

The debris were removed and by 10 am on Thursday a single lane was opened up to traffic. Later the total stretch was

cleared.

Clogged drains resulted in water flowing on the streets in many areas of the Hills resulting in damage. Reli road in Kalimpong was badly damaged with the tar top peeling off owing to heavy flow of water.

A huge tree was uprooted and blocked the road below North Point School, Singamari, Darjeeling. Many ambulances were caught in the traffic snarl owing to the road block. A distress call was made to the Darjeeling police. The police swung to action immediately, sawed the tree and cleared the block, thereby allowing vehicular traffic to ply. The hill town wore a deserted look on Thursday owing to inclement weather and the statewide lockdown. People preferred staying indoors amidst the rain and

storm.

Kalimpong recorded 110 mm of rain in the past 24 hours on Thursday morning; Kurseong 52.2mm; Darjeeling 43.6 mm and Gangtok 7.3mm. "In Kalimpong the rainfall intensity was upto 134 mm/hour at around 3am on Thursday," stated Prafulla Rao of Save the Hills, an NGO working in the landslide arena.

"There is heavy rainfall with thunderstorm, lightning gusty winds for Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts along with the wast and south districts of Sikkim.

A well marked low pressure area over Northwest Bay of Bengal now lies over north interior Odisha and adjoining Jharkhand. A fresh Low Pressure Area is likely to develop

over Northwest Bay of Bengal and neighbourhood around 23rd August, 2020," stated Dr Gopi Nath Raha of IMD, Gangtok.