The Other Aspect of River Teesta


River Teesta, along with its many tributary streams, is a life line of Darjeeling-Sikkim Hills and downstream plain areas. However, Teesta river system also displays its other aspect with horrific characteristics during monsoon season every year causing severe human-monetary-environmental miseries in the region and lowlands lying downstream. During this period the river becomes a major source of human insecurity.


River Teesta originates from the glaciers of north Sikkim at about 21000 ft. above mean sea level. It flows for about 107 miles in the mountainous region of Sikkim and Darjeeling Himalaya before it emerges at Sevok Railway Bridge into the alluvial plains of Bengal. The river traverses another 60 miles on North-Bengal plains and enters into Bangladesh. Thereafter it flows for a length of about 83 miles in Bangladesh before joining the mighty Brahmaputra at Chilmari in North West Bangladesh. While Teesta itself is a tributary river of mighty Brahmaputra the principal tributaries of Teesta include rivers like the great Rangit, Lish, Gish, Cheel, Neora, Relli etc. Almost all of them flow through Darjeeling and Sikkim Hills. The flows of Teesta River vary widely between different seasons. While the peak flood flow during the monsoon months (June-September) rise up to 0.5 million cusecs, the dry season flow dwindles to a mere 5,000 cusec during the dry season (in the month of February).

An Explosive River

River Teesta has with it valleys extremely prone to cloudbursts, landslides and flash foods. Further, deep and dense gullies and associated streams; rapid toe erosion; loose, jointed and fractured rocks and high intensity of rainfall in Teesta Basin have compelled experts to believe that probably Teesta is the wildest river in the whole of Himalayan Region. The landscape of the valley is being continuously reworked by natural forces and majority of the present slopes have been formed by earlier landslides. Scientists say that the explosive character of the Teesta Valley can be attributed to intense rainstorms in the region. River Teesta floods its basin and the associated downstream area badly every year during the monsoon causing unprecedented human-environment-monetary misery.

Of all the Himalayan Rivers, Teesta has the highest sediment yield. It, approximately, brings down 98 cum of silt per hectare of its catchment per year giving an annual denudation rate of 9.8 mm per year. And surprisingly, this is among the highest denudation rates estimated for any river valley in the world. Scientists have estimated the average denudation rate for the Darjeeling Himalaya alone in the order of 0.5 mm to 5 mm during a normal year. But during a year of catastrophic floods such as 1968, the denudation rate for that year can possibly go up to 20 mm. It is important to learn that monsoon rainfall is greater in Eastern Indian Himalaya than in its western counter part. Within eastern Himalaya again the rainfall is intense in Sikkim and Darjeeling Himalaya. The reason being: with the Rajmahal hills situated to the west and the Shillong plateau to the east there is no mountain range to protect the Teesta Valley from the sweeping monsoon winds rising from the Bay of Bengal. As a result the summer monsoon directly hits the foothills and the lesser Himalayan ranges of Darjeeling and Sikkim and gives the Teesta Valley exceedingly high burst of rainfall ranging between 3000 mm to 6000 mm every year.

According to Hunter’s Statistical Account of Bengal, Teesta was originally a river of Ganga basin. The Teesta River which at present times flows down from the Darjeeling and Sikkim hills into Bangladesh to meet up with the Brahmaputra used to flow into the Mahananda and the Ganga in Bihar about 220 years ago. In 1787, due to heavy flood and devastating earthquake Teesta shifted its course to Brahmaputra basin. If such sudden river capture occurs today, it will sweep away thousands of villages in a gigantic flash flood.

Kalimpong: An Inheritance of Loss!


As a fellow local of Kalimpong, I was compelled to get hold of Kiran Desai’s ‘Inheritance of Loss’ that came into limelight after it clinched through the Booker Prize, 2006. Several reviews in national dailies, reputed magazines and internet, floating of late, many praising the literary merit of the novel while others criticising her mocking attitude towards Nepali speakers and Kalimpong, supplied added impetus to me to lay my hands on the award winning work. The novel, although not directly based, has a foundation in Kalimpong Town located in the western part of Darjeeling Hills in Eastern Himalayas.

Reading through the pages, I immediately had an impression that there was an ample scope for any educated locals to be annoyed given the manner in which author has handled Kalimpong, its diverse ethnic groups, and the on-going Gorkhaland Agitation of the 1980s. The narratives clearly highlight her lack of correct understanding of the socio-cultural and economic dynamics operating in the area. Among many of the qualms that have perturbed the educated locals in Kalimpong forcing them to launch protests across spaces of the town, few of them may briefly be summarised.

First, Kalimpong is not as bad during monsoons as highlighted by Kiran Desai. Although it rains heavily and at times spontaneously during the period, the dreadfulness of reptiles, lizards, moths, rats and such other insects are the only imaginations far from reality. The town is located at an altitude of over 1,250 metres and has a moderate climate ranging from between 15°C to 25°C in summer and 7°C to 15°C in winter, offering year round comfort. Hence, there are no questions of sub-tropical organisms bothering human except during exceptional circumstances.

Second, the author has been unable to differentiate between the Nepali speakers who have been bonafide Indian citizens and those with Nepal citizen but working in Kalimpong on a seasonal basis. Moreover, her parallel treatment of the immigration issue in United States conveys a bad impression to the global readers about Indian Nepalis living in Kalimpong and elsewhere in Darjeeling Hills. American immigrants and Indian Nepali speakers in Darjeeling hills cannot be compared. Kalimpong along with other parts of Darjeeling was once a unit of Sikkim. While Kalimpong was snatched away by Bhutan for a brief period, other parts of Darjeeling Hills were taken over by Nepal and subsequently Darjeeling Hills including Kalimpong was taken over by British India. Hence, it is historically obvious, the region was bound to evolve as a melting pot of ethnic diversity- Lepchas, Bhutias, Nepalis, and Bengalis. Further, the development of market, introduction of tea and trade with Tibet from Kalimpong gradually encouraged other social groups- Biharis, Marwaris, Tibetans and others- to find spaces for themselves in the region. Therefore, signaling time and again that Indian Nepalis are immigrants from Nepal will not hold good.

Third, the novel clarifies us that Indian Nepali speakers of Kalimpong were brought generations ago to work on British tea plantations from Nepal. This is simply not true. Out of the total functioning tea gardens in Darjeeling Hills Kalimpong sub-division accommodates only four of them. They were introduced in Kalimpong much after the British left India. Kalimpong is largely an agrarian economy. Paddy, maize, millet, buckwheat, ginger, cardamom, orange, and more recently horticulture and floriculture are the backbones of regional economy of Kalimpong. Hence, Nepali speakers in Kalimpong did not immigrated as plantation labours but as subsistent agriculturists. Further, migration had been taking place in and across the area much before the British set their foot in the region.

Fourth, Inheritance of Loss talks of Gorkhaland Agitation but fails to understand many facets of the movement’s dynamics. It traces its root to the annexation of Sikkim into the Indian Territory and also the rising insurgencies in the north-east India. Such error on the part of author only reflects the fact she did not do her history homework properly. Ethnic discontentment in Darjeeling started long before the country saw its independence – around 1907 if not earlier. Moreover, mention of communal divide during the agitation is totally uncalled for. There were no instances of any kind of political harassment-s on communal line. It was largely a united struggle against the age old state regression. At rare cases, however, resident Bengalis were suspected as agents of state and the ruling comrades, whom Gorkhas hated the most. She, however, declares in one of her recent interviews “The political information is accurate to my knowledge and based on my memories and the stories of everyone I know there”.

Further, it is clear from her writing that Desai could not familarise herself with Nepali language as she never uses Nepali proverbs and jargons to substantiate the local characters of Kalimpong, although she uses Hindi slang here and there. She, however, boasts of living and studying in Kalimpong before they left the place. One of the recent reviews further tells us that the author lived in Kalimpong for six weeks in 2002 for the purpose of research while she was in the process of writing her novel.

Needless to say, however, as one of the editorials in a leading news daily rightly pointed out, “Art is a point of view; it is reality recast and dramatised through imagination and, if it hurts, one must simply pretend it is fiction, which it is in any case”. Fellow locals in Kalimpong should have to be logical and be in charge of their emotions. It’s a fiction and nothing more than that!