The Hindu : Bengal rivers in spate

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 05, 2003

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Bengal rivers in spate

A woman with her children wades through the waterlogged Godowlia crossing in Varanasi on Friday. — Photo: Akhilesh Kumar

Siliguri July 4. The flood situation in north Bengal turned grim today with incessant rains lashing the area and all major rivers flowing close to the danger level. ``Though there was no loss of life so far, the situation might worsen any moment,'' the Divisional Commissioner, Jalpaiguri, Debaditya Chakraborty, said adding the district administration had been alerted to begin relief operations as soon as the need rose.

Yellow signal was already hoisted for rivers Kaljani, Torsha and Mansai as incessant rains breached different river embankments. Most other rivers of the area were flowing close to the danger level.

Mr. Chakraborty said red signal would be hoisted for rivers flowing through Alipurduar, if heavy rains continued.

Several wards in Alipurduar were already waterlogged, and boats were being used to rescue people, who were trapped.

The Divisional Commissioner said a 250-metre stretch of the zilla parishad road between Bidhannagar and Bateni was washed away by the Neora river at the Malbazar area, while the Chel river had breached its spur at Turturi threatening floods.

Waterlogged people at number three `gumti' in Jalpaiguri town held a demonstration this morning protesting the alleged failure of the district administration in carrying out rescue work, Mr. Chakraborty said.

16 killed in Assam

At least 16 persons, including eight in a boat mishap, died in the recent spate of flood in Assam, even as the situation improved marginally in the last 48 hours. News of death and destruction has only now started tickling from the interiors with the water level slowly receding.

Eight persons died near Tezpur on Wednesday in a boat mishap, while eight children drowned in the second wave of flood. But people learnt about the capsizing yesterday when a body was recovered near Napam in Sonitpur district. The victims were returning home in the boat from a market.

The Mahananda river and its tributaries including the Chamta, Gulma, Balason and Mechi are flowing at the danger level following rains in catchment areas, threatening to flood the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary and a few tea gardens.

One swept away in Bihar

One person was swept away by flood waters in Bihar, where rivers Kosi, Bagmati, Kamala Balan and the Adhwara group inundated fresh areas in Sheohar, Darbhanga, Madhubani and Sitamarhi districts.

A person belonging to Pushar village of Sheohar district was swept away by the flood waters of the Bagmati river yesterday.

An alert has been sounded in the district in view of the grim flood situation and relief operations have been intensified.

Rivers Bagmati and Kosi and the Adhwara group of rivers were rising and had crossed the red mark at different places along their course inundating several villages. While the Kosi river was flowing 70 cm above the danger mark at Basua, Bagmati had crossed the red mark at Benibad by 30 cm. The Adhwara was flowing 70 cm above danger mark at Kamtaul and 36 cm at Ekmighat. The Mahananda river was flowing 17 cm above the mark at Tegrahaghat.

— PTI, UNI

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Bengal rivers in spate