Three killed after landslide hits car in Sikkim State, India.

Three people have died and several more have been injured after a landslide hit a car in East Sikkim District, Sikkim, on Tuesday 10 March 2020. The incident happened at about 1.45 pm local time, with the landslide hitting the vehicle and knocking it into a ravine. The dead have been identified as driver Suraj Chhetri from Sikkim, and passengers Jharna Saha, 54, and Hrishpriya Ghose, 13, both tourists from West Bengal, the injured as Taposh Saha, 46, Narayan Ghosh, 52, Kunjala Shah, 35, Debjani Saha, Mithu Ghosh, Rhishi Ghosh, 8, and Raja Saha, also tourists from West Bengal.

Vehicle knocked from a road into a ravine by a landslide on 10 March 2020. The Telegraph.

Sikkim is located in the Indian Himalayas, and area notorious for landslides, though the majority of these occur in the Monsoon Season, and are caused by the relentless heavy rains of that season. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall. However, the spring period is not associated with such heavy rains, and the problems they bring. This time of year does have its own problems though, as it is the season during which the ice and snow of water melts. This can lead to flood events even without rainfall, as well as the destabilisation of slopes where soft sediments have previously been held in place by frozen pore water, leading to landslides.

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Thousands evacuated after landslide dams river in Sikkim, India,

Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes in Sikkim and West Bengal after a landslide blocked the River Kanaka in the Dzongu Forest in East Sikkim District, above the Teesta Low Dam Project, threatening the towns of Teesta, 29 Mile, Dikchu, Makha, Singtam and Rangpo on Saturday 13 August 2016. The landslide dam is about 50 m wide, and has created a new dam lake which has submerged the Kanka Bridge and parts of the villages of Mentyam and Lingthem, as well as about 300 m of roads.

Cloud of duct created by the 13 August 2016 River Kanaka landslide. Voice of Sikkim.

The River Kanaka is a tributary of the River Teesta which joins it above the Teesta Low Dam Project, a hydroelectric dam operated by the state-owned National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Ltd. The dam reservoir has been emptied as a precaution, though dams of this type are not intended to stop sudden floods of this kind.

The flow of the Kanaka River in Upper Dzongu from Singhik view point, before and after the 13 August 2016 landslide. Darjeelig News.

August is peak monsoon season in East Sikkim District, with rainfall for the month averaging 574 mm. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids.

 Debris from the 13 August 2016 Kanaka River landslide. Village of Mentyam in the foreground. Voice of Sikkim.

Monsoons are tropical sea breezes triggered by heating of the land during the warmer part of the year (summer). Both the land and sea are warmed by the Sun, but the land has a lower ability to absorb heat, radiating it back so that the air above landmasses becomes significantly warmer than that over the sea, causing the air above the land to rise and drawing in water from over the sea; since this has also been warmed it carries a high evaporated water content, and brings with it heavy rainfall. In the tropical dry season the situation is reversed, as the air over the land cools more rapidly with the seasons, leading to warmer air over the sea, and thus breezes moving from the shore to the sea (where air is rising more rapidly) and a drying of the climate. This situation is particularly intense in South Asia, due to the presence of the Himalayas. High mountain ranges tend to force winds hitting them upwards, which amplifies the South Asian Summer Monsoon, with higher winds leading to more upward air movement, thus drawing in further air from the sea.  

Diagrammatic representation of wind and rainfall patterns in a tropical monsoon climate. Geosciences/University of Arizona.

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