Field Study of Disaster-struck Tilgaun Over, Government Team Plans to Move Up

The government team tasked with conducting a technical study into the May 15 disaster in Tilgaun, Namkha rural municipality, Humla district, has conducted a field study at Tilgaun. 

The team consisting of senior divisional engineer at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) Sushil Kumar Shrestha, hydrologist engineer at the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology Sauhadra Joshi and senior divisional geologist at the Department of Mines and Geology Shiv Kumar Baskota flew to Simkot on Thursday morning from Nepalgunj for the study.

Currently, we are in Tilgaun where we have already held discussions with local people and conducted geological and other surveys as part of a field study to assess the impact of the damage resulting from the recent disaster, said Joshi.

It should be noted that a landslide triggered most probably a flooded Tiljung stream caused a major scare in Tilgaun on the night of May 15, forcing more than 30 people, including senior citizens, children and women, of the village to flee their homes for their dear lives. Since then, the displaced people have been living 
in makeshift tents nearby, surviving mainly on supplies coming mainly from the local municipality.  

Joshi said: We have measured the distance between the cracks. We have a geologist with us and he will interpret the findings.  

Asked if the team’s initial observation suggests that the entire village has to be shifted, Joshi said: That is not the case, at present. Cracks have appeared in fields located quite close to the brook. The condition of one or two houses may be described as critical, though. 

In the aftermath of the disaster, a group of local people had headed northwards to study if a glacial lake outburst was behind the landslide. On the contrary, the people reportedly found that the glacial lake had dried up, suggesting that meltwater may have leaked from its bottom and drained into Tiljung, triggering a landslide in Tilgaun. 

For the last two days, weather has remained good, Joshi said: We plan to head for the lake with the local people, who visited the site after the disaster, if the weather does not worsen. We will study what happened and how did it happen.

“Let’s see how we fare medically, given the risk of altitude sickness,” he said: For 2.5-3 days, we plan to conduct a study of the lake in question. After the field study, we will conduct a desk study and submit our findings to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority, which is commissioning this study, and other relevant departments.