APPSC CARE 6th October 2025 Current Affairs

Why in News?

Darjeeling’s 2025 floods and landslides highlight the combined impact of climate change, unsustainable hill development, and weak institutional disaster management on human lives, livelihoods, and national security.

Introduction

• Darjeeling — often called the Queen of Hills — has once again suffered a severe disaster due to exceptionally heavy rainfall in early October 2025.
• The Dudhia bridge over the Balason River was washed away, cutting off connectivity between Siliguri and Mirik, and disrupting national and state highways.
• The event underscores how unsustainable development, altered rainfall patterns due to climate change, and weak institutional response have made the Himalayan hills more disaster-prone.
• This crisis highlights the intersection of environment, society, economy, and national security, making it a vital case study for disaster management and sustainable development in fragile mountain ecosystems.

(Image Source: Indian Express)

Historical Vulnerability of Darjeeling

Darjeeling has a long history of natural disasters:

• Major landslides recorded in 1899, 1934, 1950, 1968, 1975, 1980, 1991, 2011, 2015.
• The 1968 floods alone killed over a thousand people.
• Nine cloudburst events in the Teesta Valley (1902-1978) documented by the Centre for Science and Environment (1991).
• Leila Seth’s memoir On Balance (2003) captures the devastation of the 1950 landslides.
• Key Insight: Natural disasters are not new to the region, but their frequency, intensity, and impact have increased due to anthropogenic pressures and climate variability.

Drivers of the Present Crisis

1. Climate Change-Induced Rainfall Shift

• Traditional ‘sawnaay jhari’ (gentle, prolonged monsoon showers) has been replaced by ‘mushaldhare varsha’ (short, intense cloudbursts).
• Concentrated downpours lead to flash floods, slope failures, and river course changes.
• Similar patterns have been observed in the 2023 Lhonak Lake GLOF in Sikkim.

2. Unsustainable Development in Fragile Hills

• Hydropower, railways, hotels, and unregulated construction have exceeded the carrying capacity of the hills.
• Encroachment on riverbeds, jhoras (streams), and floodplains has obstructed natural drainage, amplifying floods and landslides.
• Quarrying and deforestation for infrastructure projects weaken slopes.

3. Demographic Pressure and Land Use Change

• Significant in-migration from the plains and neighbouring countries over recent decades.
• Land-property boom in the last 30 years has driven construction on unstable slopes.

4. Hydrological and Geomorphological Instability

• Rivers and streams in the Teesta basin have shown unprecedented course changes, intruding into habitations and farms.

Institutional and Governance Deficits

Weak Local Capacity

• Municipalities and panchayats, once reputed for strong governance in the colonial era (1860s), now lack even basic solid waste management systems, adding to urban flooding risks.
• The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) and local bodies lack technical expertise, funds, technology, and manpower for disaster mitigation.

Limited Disaster-Specific Institutions

• District Collector–centric response is inadequate for complex mountain hazards.
• Absence of specialised mountain disaster management units and climate change research centres for Eastern Himalayas.
• Proposals such as converting the Forest Rangers College, Kurseong into a Climate Change Studies and Management Centre remain unimplemented.

Scientific Warnings Ignored

• ISRO’s Landslide Atlas 2023: Darjeeling ranks 35th among 147 most landslide-exposed districts in India.
• NGOs like “Save the Hills” (Col Praful Rao) have repeatedly flagged the risks through awareness campaigns.
• The Sikkim Human Development Report 2001 had predicted the GLOF risk that materialised in 2023, causing damages worth ₹25,000 crore (≈60 % of Sikkim’s 2022-23 GDP) and downstream destruction in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri.
• Lesson: Lack of preventive action despite clear scientific evidence aggravates disaster losses.

Economic and Livelihood Impacts

• Darjeeling Tea, a Geographical Indication product and a major foreign-exchange earner, faces soil erosion, erratic rainfall, and transport disruptions.
• Traditional sectors — tourism, cinchona & quinine cultivation, horticulture, and education hubs — are under stress.
• Damage to infrastructure (roads, bridges, hydropower) hampers local and regional economies.

National Security Dimensions

• Darjeeling lies near the Siliguri Corridor (the “Chicken’s Neck”), a narrow strip linking mainland India to the Northeast.
• Disasters disrupt troop movement, supply chains, and border logistics in this strategically sensitive zone adjoining Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and China-occupied Tibet.
• The 2023 GLOF also destroyed military installations and hydropower assets, highlighting climate-security linkages.
• Therefore, Darjeeling’s stability is not merely a state issue but a strategic national priority under India’s Act East Policy.

Lessons and Way Forward

1. Integrated Mountain-Specific Disaster Management

• Establish a National Himalayan Disaster Risk Reduction Authority with regional centres (e.g., Eastern Himalaya hub in Kurseong).
• Early Warning Systems: Strengthen IMD forecasts, community-level alerts, and hydrological monitoring of rivers and glacial lakes.

2. Climate-Resilient Planning

• Conduct carrying-capacity studies before approving hydropower, tourism, and urban projects.
• Promote eco-friendly infrastructure (bio-engineering for slope stabilisation, green roofs, permeable pavements).

3. Strengthen Local Institutions

• Capacity-building for GTA, municipalities, and panchayats in solid-waste management, drainage planning, and emergency response.
• Enhance State Disaster Response Forces (SDRFs) and link them with NDRF and Army units.

4. Sustainable Livelihoods

• Climate-resilient agriculture and tea cultivation, diversification into horticulture, medicinal plants, eco-tourism.

5. Regional and International Cooperation

• Collaborate with Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and China-Tibet for transboundary river management, GLOF monitoring, and mountain research.

Conclusion

• The Darjeeling disaster illustrates how ecological fragility, climate change, and human negligence can combine to magnify hazards into humanitarian and strategic crises.
• A paradigm shift is needed — from reactive relief to proactive resilience-building, backed by science-led planning, empowered local governance, and national-level prioritisation of the Himalayas as critical for both environmental sustainability and national security.

CARE MCQ

Q6.  Consider the following statements:

Assertion (A): The 2025 Darjeeling disaster was triggered by concentrated short-duration rainfall.
Reason (R): Climate change has altered traditional monsoon patterns, replacing steady showers (sawnaay jhari) with intense cloudbursts (mushaldhare varsha), increasing landslide and flood risks.

Options:
a. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
b. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
c. A is true, but R is false
d. A is false, but R is true

Answer: A

Explanation

• Assertion (A) is true: The disaster was triggered by intense, short-duration rainfall, which caused landslides and floods.
• Reason (R) is true and explains A: Climate change has changed rainfall patterns in Darjeeling from traditional steady monsoon showers to concentrated cloudbursts, increasing disaster vulnerability.
• Therefore, option A is the correct answer.

UPSC PYQ

Q. Consider the following statements: (2024)

Statement-I: Rainfall is one of the reasons for weathering of rocks.
Statement-II: Rain water contains carbon dioxide in solution.
Statement-III: Rain water contains atmospheric oxygen.

Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?
(a) Both Statement-II and Statement-III are correct and both of them explain Statement-I
(b) Both Statement-II and Statement-III are correct, but only one of them explains Statement-I
(c) Only one of the Statements II and III is correct and that explains Statement-I
(d) Neither Statement-II nor Statement-III is correct

Ans: (a)