Landslides threaten Khalong village in Monggar

Oct 1, 2019

Landslides in Khalong village of Narang Gewog in Monggar have left the people worried. They say every year land below their village is getting eroded, posing threat to some 46 households.   

Since 2007, the villagers have been losing their land to landslides. They now fear that the landslides might soon damage their houses as well.

“We even submitted a petition letter to the former Gup to either provide us land substitute or to look for resettlement area,” Sangay Phuntsho, one of the villagers, said.

“With landslides posing threat to our land, we were worried about making a living. We also don’t know whom to share our concern now. We even reported the issue to gewog and dzongkhag administration and we heard that we would get a land substitute,” Ugyen Rinzin, another villager, said.

“The dzongkhag has also instructed us to look for a land substitute in different places. However, we didn’t receive any good response from the government. Some farmers also left their land fallow owing to landslide threats,” Sangay Rinzin, the Chiwog Tshogpa, said.

The Narang Gup Tandin Wangchuk said the gewog office had already submitted the petition letter to the dzongkhag administration.

” After the letter, a team from dzongkhag visited the affected place for inspection. But the team said they were not in the position, as they don’t have the capacity to help the villagers. They said soil experts are required to study the situation.” 

The Monggar Dzongkhag Disaster Focal Person Karma says that they will compile an assessment report and submit it to the department of disaster management for their response.

Sonam Tshering