Kalimpong, May 29: The laying of optical fibre cable (OFC) in the hills by telecom companies and leaving loose soil around have not gone down well with residents who are blaming the shoddy covering-up job as one of the reasons for landslides in recent times.
Guwahati: While 500 tourists, are stranded in Tawang, close to the India-China border in western Arunachal Pradesh, the entire district is also facing an acute shortage of petroleum products as landslides have cut off the only road link between Tawang and Tezpur (in Assam) for the past four days.
KURSEONG, 27 MAY: The death toll from the Darjeeling Hill landslide rose to 23 with the recovery of three more unidentified bodies from Haridashatta in Darjeeling today. Rescue workers fear more people remain buried under the debris in the slide-hit areas of Darjeeling and Kurseong sub-divisions.
Cyclone Aila set off as many as 40 landslides across the Darjeeling hills today, killing at least 20.
The toll in the storm and rain triggered by the dissipating storm in north Bengal stood at 23, with three deaths reported each from Malda, Cooch Behar and South Dinajpur.
A 12-year-old girl, hit by a flying branch, was among the victims.
Heavy flooding and landslides have killed 94 people and left thousands of families homeless in northern Afghanistan since May 20, the United Nations said on Monday.
Some 8,000 houses in 207 villages have been totally or partially destroyed after heavy rain across five provinces, affecting 13,689 families, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.
The state-owned company behind China's Three Gorges Dam is looking to expand its wind power portfolio as the risks associated with hydroelectric projects grow, a senior executive said on Saturday.
