Sikkim Earthquake Prompts Worries for Kalimpong

An earthquake in northeastern India Sept. 18 prompted concern in the Colby community about the welfare of Gandhi Ashram School in Kalimpong, where Colby students have taught Jan Plans every year since 2007. A resident of the town reported later, after communications were restored, that there were no injuries and that the school sustained only minor damage.

In a Facebook message to Colby students, the ashram’s director, Fr. Paul D’Souza SJ, was concerned about the short-term impact on the local area: “We have had an earthquake of 6.8 magnitude the previous Sunday. [We] survived. Now [there is] inclement weather. Seems like the world is coming to end,” he wrote. “Take care and say a prayer for us.”

Not far from Kalimpong, in Gangtok, the capital of the Indian state of Sikkim, the September earthquake killed more than 100 people and caused several buildings to collapse.

Because of the College’s connection with the ashram, the news from the region worried students and faculty who have worked in Kalimpong.

“When I first heard, I was concerned about all of our friends and the kids we taught in Kalimpong,” said Lindsay Dale ’12, who spent last January at the school. “My grandfather actually called to tell me about it because he knew how much they mean to me.”

In an Associated Press article, Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee said Kalimpong and neighboring Darjeeling were left “in total darkness” when power lines snapped during the quake. Landslide warnings added to the worries of Dale and others, who, knowing the region’s limited resources and economic development, were concerned about the hill station’s ability to recover from a potentially devastating natural disaster.

When contacted via Facebook, ashram-school graduate Prabash Tamang confirmed that the school had emerged without serious damage or injuries. “It made a crack in one of the buildings, but we all are fine,” he said.

While time is needed to assess the long-term consequences of the earthquake in Sikkim, it appears the ashram is ready to move forward. The school, built into the Himalayan mountainside, already has plans to relocate to a more central location with larger facilities.

The idea of a major earthquake was “really scary having lived there and knowing how unconnected it is from the rest of the world,” said Veronica Foster ’12, who taught at the school in January 2011. “There was a great sense of relief when I found that everything was okay.”
Courtesy-news.colby.edu