IMD issues fresh warning of heavy rainfall in north Bengal

|HT|

The India Meteorological Department issued a fresh warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall in north Bengal over the weekend raising fears of landslides and rising water level in rivers, even as authorities in Sikkim urged tourists not to visit some of the popular destinations in the northern parts of the Himalayan state. A few hundred tourists, who got stranded in places like Lachen and Lachung in north Sikkim where some of the popular tourist destinations like Yumthang and Gurudongmar are located, have been rescued and brought to safer places, officials said.

“All tourists who were stranded in places like Lachen and Lachung have been brought back to safer places like Gangtok. However, the road conditions in the upper reaches of the state are very bad as major landslides have occurred at places in Dzongo, Chungthang, Lachen, Lachung and Dikchu,” said AB Karki, district collector of Sikkim’s Mangan district

The amount of rainfall recorded at Gangtok between June 1 and June 16 is the highest this year compared to 2020 and 2021. This year the capital of Sikkim received 632.5 mm rain during the period compared to 232.1mm and 486.6 mm in 2020 and 2021 during the same period. Districts in north Bengal too have been lashed by heavy rain over the past few days. In the last 24 hours some places like Buxaduar and Hasimara in Alipirduar district received around 350 mm and 230 mm rain. Several places registered more than 50 mm rain.

“Heavy to very heavy rain may hit some of the districts in sub Himalayan regions of West Bengal including Darjeeling and Kalimpong. The IMD, in its bulletin, has said that there could be landslides in the hills and water levels in rivers like Teesta, Jaldhaka, Sankosh and Torsa may rise further,” said a senior official of the IMD’s regional office in Kolkata.

S Poonambalam, the district magistrate of Darjeeling, said there were no reports of any major damage due to heavy rainfall till Saturday afternoon. The water level in some rivers like the Torsa and Kaljani has risen and some low lying areas have been inundated in Alipurduar and Cooch Behar districts.

The southwest monsoon advanced further on Saturday covering a major portion of south Bengal including districts like Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Howrah and East Midnapore among others.

“Conditions are favourable and the monsoon is likely to cover the remaining parts of West Bengal in the next two to three days,” said GK Das, a scientist with the IMD’s regional office in Kolkata.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)