Landslide disasters in Kalimpong, India: Matters of time?

Abstract

This article critically reflects on recent calls for the decentralisation of disaster risk management to the mountainous regions of India. The physical differences between the mountainous characteristics of the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) and the plains of mainland India are often cited as the reason why this decentralisation is needed. Proponents of decentralisation sometimes point out that decisions about the mountains are often made in cities in the plains and are thus less likely to consider the impacts of such policies on the physical landscape of the IHR. This argument, which I refer to as the hills-plains narrative of disaster management, is weighed against first-hand qualitative data that narrates people’s experiences of the causes and impacts of landslides in Kalimpong District, West Bengal, India. The article concludes that the disconnects between policy and reality when it comes to landslide risk management in Kalimpong are only weakly related to the dissonances between the physical geographies of the plains and the mountains. The article argues these disconnects are more products of the differing temporalities of landslide impacts and the temporalities for which the State is willing and able to provide support: that they are matters of time. The article ultimately questions whether calls for the decentralisation of disaster risk management to mountain areas should be separated from wider calls for the decentralisation of disaster risk management in India.