A STUDY IN ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION IN THE DARJEELING HILL AREAS THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF Ph.D OF SCIENCE (GEOGRAPHY}, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL SUBMITTED BY RAM PRASAD SHARMA DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY & PLIED GEOGRAPHY SUPERVISOR PROF. SUBIR SARKAR DEPARTIVIENT OF GEOGRAPHY & APPLIED GEOGRAPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY & APPLIED GEOGRAPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL RAJA RAMlVIOHANPUR DIST.- DARJEELING PIN -734013 WEST BENGAL 2012 1'~ 910· 02 :1 0~ 5 YIY S s ~ \ s .,.· 21JOSI 0 7 J~JN 2014 TO MY PARENTS PREFACE Environmental degradation and associated phenomena are the most pervasive of natural problems that undermine the economic and cultural development of the Darjeeling hills. Deforestation along with high intensity rainstorm induced accelerated slope degradation process further complicated the problem. Implementation of various development programs, construction of human settlement and roads to cater the ever-increasing population, exploitation of forest produce to generate potential, boosting of agriculture growth, tourism, tea plantation, quarrying on the Himalayan immature geology trigger the disaster, huge and complex, never encountered before. The situation was different even 150 years ago. The hills were densely covered by natural vegetation with very thin population and the harmonious relation between the man and nature was well preserved. Extensive heedless deforestation, haphazard construction of roads and settlements, unscientific and illegal quarrying, over grazing, inadequate drainage, in other wards unscientific and unplanned use of fragile hill slopes, has led to the establishment of vicious cycle of degradation. During heavy and concentrated rainfall, catastrophic soil erosion and innumerable landslips are caused to transport huge amount of fertile soil from the Darjeeling hills. The Dmjeeling Himalaya is thus, slowly embracing to the inevitable sterility. The declining carrying capacity of Dmjeeling hills is already visible in many sectors i.e., drinking water, transport, housing, etc. In consequence, the environmental quality has also been deteriorated to its all-time low. Climatic change is also visible and significantly demonstrated in rise in temperature, decline in relative humidity and rainy days. The rainfall became more erratic in nature over the past hundred years. It is therefore, becomes imperative to suggest remedial measures and its active implementation. Only then can the geopolitical and ecological stability ofthis extremely vulnerable region of the country be protected. ACKN OWL EDGEl\ l ENT I have great pleasure in recording my gratitude to those who helped me in the pursuit of my project. I am deeply indebted to my research supervisor, Dr. SubirSarkar, Professor of Geography and Applied Geography, North Bengal University, for guiding the research project towards completion of the present thesis during his busy schedule. This is an opportunity to express my sincerest gratitude for the kind guidance and valuable suggestions I received from him without which it would have been impossible on my part to complete the project. I am also grateful to Dr. Indira Lepcha (Lama), Head of the Department Geography and Applied Geography, orth Bengal Uni versity for providing me various books and materials. I am grateful to my well known brother Sri D. C. Pourel Advocate, Bar Association, Kalimpong for his valuable suggestions and help. I am al so thankful to my brother DiwasThapa and Mahesh Chettri who have provided me photographs of different places in connection with my thesis. I cannot remain silent without giving thanks to my dearest niece Miss SrijanaTamang for computer typing, setting the script and scanning the figures, photograph, and maps without her help it would not possible to complete my project work in ti me. I also express my thanks to my brother Sri DeobrataGhimiray and itma!G himiray who have helped me in va ri ous fields for the completion of thi s thesis. I am also grateful to Dr. R.P. Dhaka!, Principal Kalimpong College and Sri.Balabhadra Sharma, Office Superintendent, Kalimpong College, who have allowed me forcollection of books from the College library. I can·t forget my well known brother Sri.SujanGazamer, who helped me for the collection fi eld data from different interior areas. I am also thankful to Sri. Sandip Jain, Editor Himalayan Times, Kalimpong for helping me in many ways. Last, I would like to express my thanks to all the members of family for their continued inspi ration and sincerest help during the period of my research work. I( ~J<A- ;O >-~ .( es-d .L/-aJ-~ . 1 Dated: 4 h May 20 12 Ram Prasad Shanna Ka\impong ii LIST OFTABLES Number Title of the Tables Page No 1.1 Geological succession ofDarjeeling hills 13 1.2 Mean temperature, rainfall of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong 22 1.3 Rivers and tributaries in Darj eeling hill area 23 1.4 Taxonomic soil associations in Darjee!ing Himalaya 29 1.5 Characteristics of soils in forest areas of Darjeeling hills 31 1.6 Block wise land use pattern in Darjeeling Hilly areas 38 1.7 Cultivated area under different crops in the Darjeeling hill area 39 2.1 Growth of tea industry in Darjeeling during British period 46 2.2 Major roads constructed during the British period 47 3.1 Climate change and its impact implication 74 3.2 Common change in vegetation due to climate change 76 4.1 Forest area affected by fire in Darjeeling Division. 89 4.2 Extend of forest degradation in Darjeeling hills 90 4.3 River bed rising in the Himalayan foreland 91 4.4 Incidences of major landslides in Darjeeling Himalaya 96 97 4.5 Landslides under different environmental set-up 102 4.6 The rate of slumping in lower Paglajhora 103 4.7 Rating table for assigning parametric value for C.P factors 110 4.8 Proposed soil conservation plan for Darjeeling hills 113 5.1 List of endangered medicinal plants found in the Darjeeling hills 126 128 6.1 Accommodation facilities for tourists during the British period 137 6.2 List of hotels and boarding houses during the British period 138 6.3 Tourist arrivals in Darjeeling Hills (2005-20 I 0) 142 6.4 Sub-division wise arrival of tourist in the Darjeeling hills 144 6.5 Month-wise foreign tourist arrivals in Darjeeling hills 146 6.6 List of Himalayan Species under grave danger due to tourism 149 150 iii 6.7 Impact of tourism in Datjeeling hills 153 6.8 Economic impact of tourism in Datjeeling hill areas. 159 6.9 Socio-economic impacts of tourism in Datjeeling hills 161 6.10 Factor analysis for environmental degradation 165 7.1 Hilly area of Datjeeling district 172 7.2 Land tenure system in Datjeeling during British period (1903) 174 7.3 Land utilization pattern in the early independence period. 175 7.4 Classification forest area (in Acre) of the Datjeeling hills in 1963 176 7.5 Tea gardens and total area occupied by the tea gardens in Datjeeling 177 7.6 Area occupied by the tea gardens in three hill sub-divisions. 177 7.7 Proximate and underlying drives for land use transfonnation 178 7.8 Administrative set-up of the forest area in Datjeeling hills 179 7.9 Timber trading and revenue expenditure of Forest divisions 182 8.1 Major roads network in Darjeeling hills during the Biitish period 193 8.2 Roads constructed by PWD Datjeeling construction division 194 8.3 Roads constructed during the DGHC period in Datjeeling hill 197 8.4 Construction of village roads under NREGY scheme since 2007 199 8.5 The growth of population in major urban centers in Datjeeling hills 202 8.6 Projected water demand and supply in Datjeeling town 207 8.7 Education Infrastructure in Darjeeling hill sub-divisions in 2006-2007 209 8.8 The health infrastructure in hill sub-divisions of Datjeeling hills 210 8.9 Hydroelectlic power generating stations in Darjeeling hills 213 8.10 Morphology of Mirik landslide 219 9.1 Environmental impact identification 238 245 iv LIST OF FIGURES Number Title offigures Page 1.0 Location of the Daijeeling Hill areas 6 1.1 Geological map ofDatjeeling Himalaya II 1.2 Contour map of Daijeeling hills 16 1.3 Physiographic divisions ofDaijeeling Hills 17 1.4 Rainfall and temperature diagram ofDaijeeling 19 1.5 Rainfall and temperature diagram of Kalimpong 19 1.6 Rainfall and temperature diagram ofKurseong 20 1.7 Spatial distribution of rainfall pattern 22 1.8 Rivers in Darjeeling Hills 28 1.9 Soil map of Darjeeling 32 1.10 Land use map of Darjeeling hills 38 l.ll Block-wise distribution of population and households 42 3.1 Population growth of Darjeeling hills 61 3.2 Decrease of classified forest area in Darjeeling hills 66 33 CD Block-wise...... changes - in forest.cover in Darjeeling hills (1981-1991) 67 3.4 CD Block-wise population density changes during 1981-1991 68 3.5 Growth of major urban centres in Daijeeling hills 70 3.6 Changes in major land use pattern in Daijeeling hills 71 3.7 Long term temperature projection ofDaijeeling 72 3.8 Long term relative humidity trend projection of Daijeeling 73 3.9 Long term precipitation trend projection ofDarjeeling 74 4.1 Landslide prone areas in Darjeeling hills 101 4.2 Iso-erodent map ofDaijeeling Hills 111 4.3 Deforestation-flood vicious cycle: A case of the Darjeeling hills 115 5.1 Environment degradation and consequences 124 6.1 Tourist arrival in Daijeeling hills 142 6.2 Trends of tourist arrival in Daijeeling hills 143 v 6.3 Trends of foreign and domestic tourist arrival in Darjeeling hills 144 6.4 Sub-division wise tourist arrival in Dmjeeling hills 145 6.5 Sub-division wise trends of tourist arrival