Met office forecasts more rains in north Bengal even as hill areas hit by landslides

Kolkata, Aug 4 Districts in northern West Bengal, which are reeling under incessant rains coupled with landslides in the hill areas of the region, will continue to receive heavy rainfall for the next few days, weather officials said on Monday.

The Met Office said that the North Bengal districts of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, and Jalpaiguri are likely to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall till Saturday. An orange alert has been issued in these five districts.

A Met department official said that in addition, there was a possibility of heavy rainfall in other north Bengal districts like North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur, and Malda till Wednesday. "Heavy rains will continue in the five districts of north Bengal from Tuesday to Saturday. This will result in overflowing of several rivers and increase the possibility of further landslides in the north Bengal hills," he added.

Due to continuous rainfall for the last few days, landslides have been reported in several places in the hills of this region since Sunday morning. The most affected was the West Bengal-Sikkim lifeline of National Highway-10.

Landslides occurred in several places, including Mamkhola, Rishikhola, and Tarkhola. Immediately after the landslides, a huge crack appeared on the road in Rishikhola. Several other roads were damaged. As a result, vehicular traffic movement between West Bengal and Sikkim was halted temporarily.

Meanwhile, light to moderate rain with thunderstorms will continue in Kolkata for the next few days. Gusty winds might blow at a speed of 30 to 40 kilometres per hour. The same forecast has been issued by the Met Office for other districts in south Bengal, namely Howrah, Hooghly, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Jhargram, Purulia, and Bankura districts.

In addition to this, a warning of rain with thunderstorms has been issued for south Bengal districts like North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, East Burdwan, West Burdwan, Birbhum, Murshidabad, and Nadia on Monday as well as Tuesday.

The minimum temperature in Kolkata on Monday morning was 26.1 degrees Celsius, 0.4 degrees below normal. The maximum temperature in the city on Sunday was 31.6 degrees Celsius, 0.9 degrees below normal.

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