Darjeeling receives more than three times the average annual rainfall.

Would you believe me if I said that we received nearly 10 percent of our annual rainfall in just a few hours?

During that extreme event, more than 30 lives were lost, many people are still missing, and crores worth of property were washed away. People’s cars, farmland, and homes were taken by the deluge that unfolded overnight on the 4th of October.

Here, where I stand in TIEEDI Forest Garden, we lost a huge chunk of forest land that night. It’s very difficult to get used to the kind of loss that happens so suddenly. 

According to the Landslide Atlas of India published by ISRO, Darjeeling is one of the most landslide-prone regions in the country.

However, the question remains: is it a natural disaster, or is it manmade?

Let’s try and unpack that.

Five Factors Behind the Devastation

1. The Larger Climate Crisis

The first and perhaps most pressing factor is the larger climate crisis. The one that affects all of us, regardless of where we live. Extreme weather events like these are no longer anomalies; they are becoming the new normal.

2. Concretization of Our Towns and Villages

The second factor is the concretization of our towns, cities, and now even villages. Concrete does not allow water to seep into the soil in its natural way. What should percolate into the ground instead rushes down slopes, destabilizing the terrain and causing landslides.

3. Waste Mismanagement

The third factor is waste mismanagement, which has become one of the major causes of landslides across the hills, regardless of how much rainfall there is. Clogged drains, plastic-choked slopes, and unsegregated waste all contribute to the soil’s inability to absorb and channel water properly.

4. Water Mismanagement

The fourth factor is water mismanagement. We need to treat each kind of water separately: rainwater, stormwater, greywater, and blackwater all require different handling systems. Without this separation, water accumulates and flows unpredictably, eroding the land and increasing disaster risk.

5. Building Codes and Planning in the Himalayas

Finally, the fifth factor is the lack of proper building codes for eco-sensitive Himalayan regions.
We are located in Zone 4 for cyclones and Zone 4 for earthquakes, which means we are in the danger zone for nearly every kind of natural disaster.

And yet, would you believe me if I said that only 8 cities across the 13 Himalayan states in India have produced a master plan to regulate development, as per the AMRUT Scheme of India? (Source: DownToEarth, 2024) 

We urgently need to build our resilience to these kinds of extreme climatic calamities. We have lived through several at TIEEDI in the last few years, and I believe that if we can address these five factors, we can mitigate such disasters in the future.

Designing for Resilience in the Hills

The first step is to design for disasters. If we are able to design for the worst-case scenarios, we can overcome the challenges that come with extreme climate events.

The second step is to treat water with respect, ensuring that it flows through the right channels and is managed responsibly. Equally important is to treat waste with respect, where each kind of waste is treated separately, and we ensure that no waste goes into landfills, rivers, or hillsides.

The fourth step (and one of the most promising) is to imbibe more natural solutions when we build. If we could use solutions like Vetiver, a plant whose roots go down more than 40 feet, we can stabilize slopes in landslide-prone areas. Less use of concrete, more natural solutions. That is the way forward.

Finally, we must address unchecked tourism. When tourism becomes irresponsible and unregulated, it aggravates these problems further. We need to practice responsible and regenerative tourism, where visitors and communities work together to restore balance rather than disturb it.

As individuals and as communities, it is time we step up for the hills. We have to be the change we wish to see around us. Each small action matters. Just as every drop makes the ocean.

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