Three members of the same family, including an eight-year-old, were killed in a landslide at Darjeeling Hills on Wednesday.
They died after their house collapsed at Lodhma in the hill, district officials said. District Magistrate Anurag Srivastava said that when the landslide hit the house situated on the brink of a gorge, all the family members were sleeping as it was early in the morning. “The house of yet another family also collapsed in the same landslide but they were saved. The district administration has provided them with accommodation at a relief centre close to Rimbik,” he said.
Srivastava pointed out that heavy rainfall in the last few days has been causing frequent landslides in the Darjeeling Hills and large parts of National Highway 10, connecting Siliguri to Sikkim’s capital of Gangtok, caved in since Wednesday morning disrupting traffic in the region.
“The arterial road was cleared of the debris and traffic movement has improved,” he said. Bimal Gurung, the chief executive of the autonomous Gorkhaland Territorial Administration and president of the hill party, Gorkha Janamukti Morcha visited the affected area.
“This landslide has once again reminded us of the need to prepare for such disasters and educate people on what to do under such circumstances,” he said.
Darjeeling, a landslide prone area, faces severe problems during the monsoon and in July last year more than 30 people died in landslides at Mirik in Darjeeling.
Published 20 July 2016, 20:05 IST