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The Telegraph
AVIJIT SINHA

Siliguri, July 1: Forests and hamlets, hilltops and plains — all in one circuit ready to be relished.

For the first time a trekking trail will start from the Dooars and extend up to Kalimpong. The forest stretch from Oodlabari to Neora Valley is dotted with several idyllic hamlets, belonging to different communities.

Called Noam-Chel-Teesta Tourism Peace Park, the project promoted jointly by the West Bengal Forest Development Corporation and Help Tourism, will arrange for the treks and the stays at the hamlets.

“The idea is to provide an opportunity to tourists to enjoy nature, trek through the foothills, relish local cuisine, stay with the villagers and have bath in the rivers, rivulets or even in the waterfalls,” said Raj Basu, the driving force behind the concept and an official of Help Tourism. (more…)

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, June 25: A survey will be carried out in the Gorubathan block of the Kalimpong subdivision, where 50 people have been affected by malaria.

Sources said the regional malaria director for north Bengal, Tulsi Pramanik, along with a team of experts, will visit the areas hit by the disease and suggest preventive measures. (more…)

The Telegraph

Bagdogra, June 18: Drukair, the Royal Bhutan Airlines, became the first commercial international flight to land in Bagdogra today, when it launched its service from Paro to Bangkok.

Around 11am, an Airbus 319 arrived at Bagdogra carrying officials of Drukair and 79 passengers flying to Bangkok from Paro in Bhutan. The flight was flagged off at Paro by S.M. Krishna, the Indian external affairs minister, and his Bhutanese counterpart Ugen Tshering.

“The flight from Bhutan to the Thai capital will have a stopover at Bagdogra. The service will further strengthen the excellent relationship between India and Bhutan and promote people-to-people contact,” Tshering Penjore, the general manager and head of ground operations, Drukair, said at a media conference at the airport here.

The official said the flight to Bangkok would arrive at Bagdogra twice a week — on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Conversely, the flight bound for Paro from Bangkok will land at Bagdogra on Wednesdays and Sundays.

“We plan to operate the planes in the morning, preferably between 8am and 9am. The exact timings will be finalised in the next few days. In-flight services will be of international standards with varieties of food on menu,” said Penjore.

He said the airline was offering promotional fares for the residents of this region. “We do not promote mass tourism. Our target is to get around 40,0000-50,000 visitors a year,” he said. “Our focus is on north Bengal and we want people in the region to visit our country located so close. Now that the air service has been introduced, we look forward to welcoming more people from the region.”

As of now, Drukair will charge Rs 1,500 for the Bagdogra-Paro trip and Rs 6,500 for a Bagdogra-Bangkok journey. “The fare for Bagdogra-Bangkok-Bagdogra will be Rs 10,000,” said the Drukair official. While it will take around 30 minutes to reach Paro from Bagdogra, the journey to Bangkok is two-hour long.

“We find that people from north Bengal go to Bhutan for one purpose or the other on a regular basis by road. Our plan is to tap around 40 per cent of them, who can avail of the air service now,” said Penjore.

Another factor, he said, that had led to introduction of the service was the refuelling of the aircraft. Air Turbine Fuel costs much in Bhutan, the reason being the higher transportation charge of carrying it to the country from India.

K.K. Bhowmik, the airport director here, appreciated the initiative of Drukair and said Bagdogra was ready with infrastructure to operate international flights.

“We are consistently upgrading the infrastructure and once the apron is extended, at least five-six aircraft can be accommodated,” he said.

The Telegraph

Kalimpong, June 18: A comprehensive profile of the Darjeeling hill topography using satellite imagery can be of great use for preparing land-use plans in the landslide-prone region.

Mamata Desai, professor, department of ecology, physical and human resources at the Netaji Institute for Asian Studies, Calcutta, who has carried out identification and mapping of the hazard-prone areas in the hills by using Geographical Information System and remote sensing techniques, put forward the suggestion here today. Desai was delivering a keynote address at a workshop on disaster management. She said population explosion and dwindling forest cover were among the main reasons for the increase in the frequency of landslides in the hills. The workshop was organised by Save The Hills, an NGO actively engaged in espousing the landslide issue.

Citing the example of the Darjeeling Municipality area, she said the percentage of forest cover had come down from 95 per cent in 1800 to 10 per cent in 2001. Conversely, the built-up area has gone from nil to 65 per cent. The population in the hills has increased by over four times between 1901 and 2001.

Under such circumstances, she said, land-use practices played the most important role in determining the stability factor of a region.

“The land-use planning should be undertaken after thorough analysis of the slope faces by calculating the humidity aspects. The humidity level is very high on the southern slope of the hills. The slope should not be used either for construction or agriculture activity,” she told about 100 people who had been invited.

One among the many ways of mitigating the landslide hazard, she said, was the preparation of data base by taking into consideration all relevant information like geology, geomorphology, history of landslide or any other type of disaster in the area concerned. “On the basis of the database, respective department or group can prepare sustainable planning to mitigate the disasters,” she said, while emphasising that landslides could not be completely stopped, but only mitigated.

Stating that proper management could reduce landslides by as much as 75per cent, she made a 10-point suggestion, including, among others, soil mapping, micro-level land-use mapping, checking deforestation, restriction on construction along side slopes of the roads, and ban on plastic bags.

The Telegraph

Siliguri, June 17: A landslide triggered by night-long heavy rain blocked the only road to Sikkim for more than eight hours today, leading to long queues of vehicles on both sides of the debris.

A part of the road was cleared by 1pm.

Residents of Sevoke, 20km from here, said the hillside came tumbling down on NH31A that also connects Kalimpong around 4am. Although no houses were damaged, the debris covering about 30 metres of the highway — from Coronation Bridge to the Sevoke police outpost — stopped traffic till the highway was partly cleared.

This is the first major landslide in the hills after Cyclone Aila struck on May 26. At that time there were 40 landslides, which killed 28 people. (more…)

The Telegraph

Siliguri, June 16: The first international flight to Bagdogra Airport will land on Thursday. The flight — to be operated by Drukair — from Paro in Bhutan will arrive at Bagdogra and then leave for Bangkok.

The Bhutan airline had been scheduled to land on March 29, but the service did not take off, as the customs department had not set up its counter at the airport. A customs officer said all arrangements had been made and the department was only awaiting a formal communication from the higher-ups in Delhi to open the counter.

“Drukair will be the first international airline to operate from Bagdogra. Its services will be four days a week. While the flights from Paro will land and take off on Tuesday and Saturday, the return flights’ arrival and departure will be on Sundays and Wednesdays,” said K.K. Bhowmik, the airport director of Bagdogra.

“We have put in place immigration and customs counters and health bay, which are essential for an international airline to operate, at the airport.” The Bhutan national carrier, he said, would use Airbus 319 with a capacity to seat 114 passengers on the route.

“The Central Board of Excise and Customs Department, which comes under the Union ministry of finance, will give the clearance for the counter any time,” said R. Manga Babu, additional commissioner of customs, north Bengal. “Once we receive it, there will be no hindrance to launching the international flight on Thursday,” he said.

The officer said the department had set up a separate counter at the airport and an inspector, a superintendent and around 20 other employees would be posted to check passengers’ baggage.

“On June 18, the first flight will land at 10.30am from Paro and depart for Bangkok at 11am. On the return trip, the aircraft will arrive at 9am and leave for Paro after 30 minutes,” said Bhowmik.

He added that external affairs minister S.M. Krishna would be on the inaugural flight from Paro. Krishna will later leave for Delhi.

Save The Hills blog has a new post with some very disturbing photographs. There are two sets of photographs taken of various views of the Teesta river - one set taken during Cyclone Aila (26 May ‘09) and one set taken yesterday (13 June ‘09).

The photographs tell a grim story. The difference in water levels between the two dates is scary.. and sobering.

Here’s one pair of photos. The left one shows the water level during Aila.. and it’s almost reached the highway. That’s after just 3 days of rain! Yikes..

The Telegraph

Darjeeling, June 12: The advent of the monsoon signalling an end to tourist season in the Darjeeling hills has prompted the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha once again to revive its agitation for Gorkhaland — this time in the nature of a “long strike”.

However, Morcha president Bimal Gurung, who had not called a general strike of more than six days last year, has appealed to the people to be ready and his outfit has already started setting up godowns to stock up foodgrain to tide over the agitation phase. (more…)

The Telegraph

Teesta Bazar, June 12: River guides based here and in Melli have demanded that the DGHC immediately lift the suspension it had imposed on the rafting in the Teesta following a mishap about two weeks back.

However, the 70-odd guides of the 18 rafting units in these areas under the banner of Red and White River Rescue Group and Guides’ Association were prevented from going ahead with their plan to block the Teesta-Pesho-Jorbunglow road for 12 hours by the Teesta branch of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today. (more…)

www.telegraphindia.com

Kurseong June 10: The Bengal government will immediately grant Rs 50,000 for each house damaged by Cyclone Aila in the four hill municipalities on May 26.

The announcement was made by the state urban development and municipal affairs minister, Asok Bhattacharya, here today after a meeting with the heads of the four municipalities and the Darjeeling district magistrate, Surendra Gupta. (more…)