North Bengal landslides: Rescue operations gain pace as weather conditions improve

Kolkata, Oct 6 The administration and the members of the rescue teams in the flood and landslide affected Terai and Dooars regions in north Bengal heaved a sigh of relief, as the rescue and relief operations there gained pace following improvement in weather conditions on Monday.

There were scattered rains in different pockets of North Bengal late on Sunday night and also light rainfall on early Monday morning. However, the rainfall stopped soon, and the sky became clear.

What came as additional relief was the weather forecast by the Regional Meteorological Centre in Kolkata's Alipore on Monday, which said that although there might be scattered rain along with thunderstorms in some of the eight districts of north Bengal on Monday as well, there were little possibilities of heavy rainfall in the later part of the day in most districts except Alipurduar.

"The weather is improving in the north Bengal hills area. Although there may be some scattered rains, there is no possibility of heavy rain as of now except in Alipurduar district," said a Met department official.

Following days of incessant rains, which resulted in massive landslides killing at least 23 people as reported till Monday morning, the weather changed in the hills this morning. A clear view of Kanchenjunga was seen from Darjeeling.

There has been no rain in Darjeeling city since the morning. The weather helped the rescue operations, which are going on at a war footing in the two hill districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong, to gain pace.

Meanwhile, the tourists stranded in the hills for the last couple of days started coming down to the plains from Monday morning, following the improvement in the weather conditions.

Since the main and shortest routes for coming down from the hills, Siliguri, is cut off following the landslides, the tourists are using the two alternative routes of Tindharia Road and Pankhabari Road.

“Since Tindharia Road is less remote compared to the Pankhabari Road, the rush of tourist vehicles coming down to Siliguri was more at the Tindharia Road,” a Darjeeling district official said.

Although the figure of 23 fatalities till Monday morning is as per the latest compilation by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the district administrations in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri, the officials fear that the actual death toll could be more, as rescue and recovery operations were ongoing.

About 261 millimetres of rainfall occurred in the Darjeeling hills in 24 hours since Saturday. Due to heavy rains, the water level in all rivers of north Bengal, including Teesta, Torsa, and Mahananda, has risen.

Several roads were damaged, cutting off connectivity to several places. Bridges and culverts were washed out by overflowing rivers.

Mirik and Sukhiya Pokhari were the most affected. A large number of tourists have been stranded there.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to visit north Bengal later in the day to monitor the rescue operations.

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