News

Greater autonomy for Darjeeling district

The following report on the new political settlement in the hill areas of West Bengal comes from Daijiworld.com

By Pradipta Tapadar

Sukna (West Bengal), July 18 (IANS)Sukna (West Bengal), July 18 (IANS) An elated Roshan Gurung, 60, who runs a teashop, was Monday looking forward to peace, development and that crucial stamp of “identity” ahead of a historic tripartite agreement for the Darjeeling hills.

“We are very happy about the agreement. We suffer from identity crisis. I hope this treaty will bring peace and development in the hills,” said Gurung, a Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) supporter in Darjeeling district.…

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Uplifting advice courtesy of the Indian Border Road Organisation

Here are just a few of the delicious slogans painted onto the rocks on the side of the roads in the Indian Himalayas. They come courtesy of the Border Road Oragnisation (BRO), who presumably have a team of script-writers working hard to secure the safety and moral upliftment of drivers. (I have resisted the temptation to correct the English):

-Peep! Peep! Don’t sleep.

-If you are married to speed, divorce it!

-Drive like hell, and you’ll be there!

-Fast drive. Last drive.…

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Volunteer on the Annapurna trail

Our first volunteer to go to the Shree lali Gurans primary school in Chitre, a village on the Annapurna Circuit trekking trail, will be arriving there within the next few days. It’s one of just a few schools that our volunteers have to trek to.…

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Strike called off

The strike called at the start of the year by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which blocked all traffic between Siliguri and Darjeeling and Kalimpong, was called off in mid-February. This was a relief for us, since our first volunteer of the year was unable to reach their school. We now have a volunteer in place in the Gyan Jyoti school outside Kalimpong, and we are hopeful that our programme can run without further disruption from now on.…

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Strikes close down Darjeeling district

One of our volunteers has had to abandon her teaching assignment in the village of Mungpoo because of a strike called by the Gorkha Jankukti Morcha which is campaigning for a separate Gorkhaland. She and her husband were bussed down from Darjeeling to Siliguri, at the foot of the Himalayas, by the police yesterday just before they were due to travel to Mungpoo.

The ‘India Blooms News Service’ reports the following

Darjeeling/Siliguri/Jalpaiguri, Feb 11 (IBNS) Life remained shut for the third consecutive day in the hills of Darjeeling on Friday while scarcity of essential commodities became acute as the indefinite strike, called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, continued.…

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Man-eating leopards in Uttarakhand

Over the past 15 days there have been attacks on humans by wild animals in the Tehri area of Uttarakhand, and two incidents involved children being supported by the Serve and share Association which runs the SASA Academy – one of the schools we support.

The first incident involved one of the brothers of a sponsored child. As he went outside in order to go upstairs, a leopard attacked him. It held onto his thigh and was pulling him away, but the boy was fortunate enough to able to cling onto the solar panel rod outside his house.…

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Volunteer recruitment – a great start to 2011!

Volunteer recruitment is going well this year with six already signed up and several more in the pipeline. This is encouraging after a rather poor year in 2010 which saw only six volunteers placed at schools in the whole year.

The first volunteer of 2011 has now started at his school in Nepal, and the others will be going out to the Himalayas over the next 5 months.…

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Trekking in Uttarakhand

Think of the Himalayas, and you don’t iimmediately think of Uttarakhand, if at all. Nepal springs to mind, and maybe Sikkim and Bhutan. But the Indian state of Uttarakhand has everything that those more familiar places have in terms of scenery, and it has unique features such as the beautiful hill station of Nainital, with its spectacular lake, and in the Himalayan foothills, it boasts of two of Hinduism’s most sacred resorts: Haridwar and Rishikesh, on the banks of the Ganges.…

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The aftermath of the floods in Ladakh

The Times of India reported the following on 23 October 2010:-

LEH: As an unforgiving winter waits to descend on the mountainous desert of Ladakh, its people face the grim possibility of spending the bitter months without a proper roof on their heads. Having suffered due to the August cloudburst, residents of Leh’s many villages have been banking on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s word that all houses destroyed during the calamity would be built before the onset of winter. It’s been over two months since that promise, and hope is fading away.…

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I want to let you know that I have looked at a lot of volunteer organizations since I did your program and you have (as far as I can tell) one of the best. I really like how much you personally care about each volunteer and each school.
Anne GillilandDenjong Pema Choling Academy
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