How Land-use Patterns in Hilly areas Prevent Landslides in Darjeeling
In hilly areas like Darjeeling, land use practices play a significant role in determining the stability factors of landslide hazards. A close contemplation of the land-use map of Darjeeling Hilly tract, reveals that there are multitude of agricultural activities, tea and medicinal plant plantations, construction works along with forests, rivers, jhoras and many others.
However, the high density population in the hilly areas creates a lot of problems in the land-use patterns of Darjeeling. The density of population is gradually increasing, which makes the scope of extending agricultural land limited. As a result, the available land falls short to cope up with increasing pressure of population. Naturally, the increasing pressure on forested and other restricted areas cannot be checked.
Landslides in Darjeeling Hill Areas often encourage problems in the land-use patterns. Due to this, the roads have never been examined in respect of its carrying capacity and geology. Moreover, the new road construction results in the increased vehicular movements and the rapid growth of trade and commerce. In such roads, heavy traffic movements along with heavy rainfall often cause serious landslides. These days, it has been observed that the increase of the vehicular traffic is incessant, especially heavy vehicles like trucks and buses. In fact, the number of registered vehicles in the hill subdivisions is more than 6500.
Although the length or pattern of the roads in the hilly areas, did not undergo any massive change in the last 50 years, but the number of vehicles, especially goods vehicles like trucks has increased 5 to 7 times than before. Even during night, the traffic movement on the roads continues. Increased vehicular movements cause constant lateral vibrations, thereby making the weaker geological structure becoming more unstable. Apart from the above-mentioned roads, many other roads are maintained by the Forest Department. Some of the major road networks here is (1) the Cart Road from Sukhiapokhri to Maneybhanjan and Batasia, (2) Cart Road from Simkona to Lalkuthi in Darjeeling Forest Division (3) Sukna-Sevok Road in Kurseong Forest Division (4) the Rassium – Labha Cart Road, South Boundary Cart Road, Central Cart Road and Dalgaon Tar Cart Road in Kalimpong Forest Division.
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