Rains wreak havoc in southern Bengal
Monday, 24th August 2020
Heavy rains occurring intermittently in Southern Bengal since Wednesday night have taken the toll of 4 lives due to electrocution and one was critically injured. In the coastal belts and Sunderban area several families had to be moved to the local schools as many villages were flooded due to over flowing rivers. Spring tide combined with torrential downpours led to pretty high sea waves and that has flooded adjoining towns and also the popular beach destinations.
Warnings of heavy rains due to 2 back-to-back depressions over the Bay of Bengal came this Wednesday from the India Meteorological Department. While one depression was created on Wednesday the other one is likely to get created on Sunday.
Two workers while fixing a hoarding in front of the elephant enclosure at the Kolkata Alipore Zoo lost their lives when they accidently came in contact with a live wire within the premises of the zoo and also one was severely injured. Furthermore, two more people were fatally electrocuted at Howrah Shibpur when they by chance touched a live wire.
Many rivers flowing across the south Bengal puffed up flooding several villages in the districts of Bankura, East Midnapur, and South 24 Parganas.
“The water of rivers Muriganga and Kalindi entered in a few villages over the embankments as there was heavy rain during high tide. Our officials have rushed to the spot to pump out the water,” said a senior irrigation department official.
At the Sagar block in the district of South 24 Parganas, over 250 families had to be evacuated from the villages and taken to temporary shelters in the local schools after river water breached embankments as reported by S Mondol, BDO-Sagar Island.
At Digha, a very popular W.B beach destination in the district of East Midnapore, lofty waves dashed against the guard walls entering shops located in vicinity to the beach.
“During high tide the sea water entered the marine drive running parallel to the beach in places like Shankarpur, Digha, Shyampur and Jamra after high waves crashed on the guard walls,” said S Bhattacharya, the SDO of Contai, East Midnapore district.
At the districts of Murshidabad and Malda, the gushing Ganges is causing huge lot of erosion due to heavy rains. The fierce swelling river is consuming more and more land each day and so many are spending sleepless nights due to this.
“Even though erosion is an old problem in Murshidabad, this year it has taken a serious shape. The erosion at Hossainpur, Kulidear and Parsujapur has taken serious shape. We have requested the administration to shift some families from those villages. From the TMC party we have provided them relief materials,” said the Trinamool Congress Block president of Farakka in Murshidabad, Ejarat Ali.
In Bankura nearly a dozen of villages were disconnected from water flowing above the bridge. People needed to embark on a detour of about 10 km to reach their village.
“Heavy rains would continue in an intermittent manner till August 25 as another low pressure is expected to form. The monsoon trough is also very active which is triggering heavy rains in south Bengal,” said an official of the IMD.
Source: Hindustan Times