About 50 years ago I lost a little cousin to a similar fury of Teesta when in an instant flood the entire Jalpaiguri town was submerged.” Anaath Narjinari, a 70 years old fish vendor who witnessed the October 4 deluge up in the hills recalls a 50 years old story.
It goes thus. Past midnight as the furious Karola, a branch of Teesta that meanders through Jalpaiguri town, entered the village the “Jeley” or fishermen dumped their families and effects in their boats and sculled out in the dark watery wilderness.
“At that point… my Thakruda (grandfather) spotted a commotion in the water and charged his ballam (harpoon) at the animal, apparently a big fish …” The target pierced in its heart was not a big fish but the tiniest toddler of the family that had tumbled into the water from the boat.
Fifty years later Anaath was at Rangpo — the border town between Bengal and Sikkim to witness once again the same Teesta rush down with vengeance.
“The river that normally flows about 50-70 feet below along the national highway till Teesta Bazaar before taking a curve towards Kalimpong while you turn towards Gangtok seemed suddenly to have gone violent… In the morning we saw only a 10th of the national highway hanging from the mountains. The rest had gone to the River,” Anaath said.
On October 4 Sikkim and Darjeeling-Kalimpong region of Bengal saw a rerun of the calamity with a violently gurgling Teesta, the largest river in the region apart from Mahananda, hurtling down the mountains sweeping away whatever it encountered down-stream. Such was the burst of Teesta that the Rangit River that joins the former off Rangpo saw its waters pushed up stream by several furlongs, sources said.
A flash flood in the wake of a cloudburst in the upper regions of Himalayas in the wee hours of Wednesday led to a flash flood that mainly affected Sikkim and also to some extent parts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts in Bengal. Villages, Army camps, roads, livestock and property including army vehicles were washed away in no time.
Wednesday’s flash flood resembled the one in 1968 which too triggered hundreds of landslides, leaving behind a trail of death. About 1,000 people died then on the same day of October.
“I wonder whether it is the verdict of the Providence that the violent weather had to return on the same day,” said a professor in the Department of Geography in North Bengal University wondering whether too many dams and high rises along the Teesta had added to the ferocity of the flash floods.
“There are about 7-9 big and small dams which have dammed us … these are fragile territories and if you construct dams at that rate then you are in for trouble … thank God that Coronation Bridge at Sevoke off Siliguri, the only link between the rest of India and the North East is still safe,” he says, ruling how “politics takes bigger tolls than natural calamities.”
About 65 people have been rescued safely and several scores have been recorded dead with bodies still being fished out from the lower Teesta regions of Jalpagirui and even Bangladesh, sources in the district administration said. l
A missing army man was literally dug out from a heap of mud as late as on Saturday and he was still breathing, sources said adding he had been sent to a hospital.
While authorities in the flood-hit State of Sikkim confirmed a total of 77 deaths on Sunday, the Jalpaiguri district police informed that they had discovered 48 more bodies. Official records indicate that over 100 people remain unaccounted for. “Officials from ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) and NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) have also been sent (to the affected areas).
“Union Home Minister Amit Shah has released funds for SDRF (State Disaster Response Force) and has promised to provide all possible assistance to NDRF as well,” Minister of State Ajay Mishra said.
From Siliguri local MLA Gautam Deb said, “You have bigger things to do after the initial rescue work… but there is always a lack of resources.” The low-lying areas of Jalpaiguri have been evacuated, sources said adding even the people living on the banks of Karola have been shifted out to safer areas. Referring to “politics” being played, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said how the Centre was ignoring her State “despite the gravity of the situation being the same.” Bengal was not a “beggar” she said before announcing a relief of Rs 24 crore for flood hit areas of Kalimpong and Darjeeling. Siliguri MLA and Siliguri Mayor Gautam Deb said how the “Centre has sanctioned funds for Sikkim but has given not a single farthing to Bengal for Kalimpong.”
Bengal Minister Arup Biswas said how “the Centre is allergic to Bengal … they have given relief funds to other States but nothing to Bengal.” He made the statements after reports of Centre releasing Rs 45 crore for Sikkim.
Even Anit Thapa the Chairman of Gokhaland Territorial Authority expressed his anger too. “The Centre is giving step-motherly treatment to GTA when we too have been affected by the flash floods,” he said.
“How will we carry out the rescue work … how will we rebuild our sides of the flooded region when we have received no money from the Centre … and consider that these are peak tourism seasons with Durga Pujas approaching.”
From Teesta cut to Damodar. Large parts of Hooghly, West Midnapore and Howrah districts. With the Damodar Valley Corporation releasing about one lakh cusecs of water flood-like situations prevailed in these districts. Ghatal in West Midnapore remained the most affected area.
So much so that local Arambagh MP Aparupa Poddar was gheraoed by the villagers a couple of days ago when she went to take stock of the situation. Poddar was forced by the villagers to walk down the inundated areas to “see our houses … and how we live daily … they come in AC cars and make some promises and go, whereas year after year we
have to live like animals,” a villager said.
According to sources in the Irrigation Department “In south Bengal, water level in most rivers in East and West Burdwan, Birbhum, West Midnapore, Bankura, Hooghly and Howrah districts have risen,” adding about 10,000 people have been kept in 120 camps.
“For the past couple of days there has been no rain … but if it rains again then we are ready for the situation,” a senior Irrigation
Department official said.
