The ongoing spate of erosion of the Hooghly river bank in Nadia’s Santipur continued this weekend with at least five houses being lost, in addition to nearly 30-bigha agricultural land, early on Sunday morning.

The panicked residents relocated along with several moveable properties over the weekend.

Till Sunday afternoon, 10 families have taken shelter at a local primary school whereas a few other families are reportedly staying at relatives’ houses in nearby areas.

Angry over the “lackadaisical” approach of the district administration in undertaking preventive measures, local residents blocked NH12 for about an hour on Sunday afternoon. They alleged that except for sand-bag piling, no protective measures had been taken.

“The sandbag piling work is basically an eyewash in which the contractor is benefited. No official from the local administration or the irrigation department has bothered to examine the actual results,” alleged Nilakamal Biswas, who lost his home to erosion on Sunday.

The blockade, which started about 1pm, was withdrawn at 2pm after local police officers had assured the residents of taking up their grievances with the district administration.

Sources said Sunday morning’s erosion occurred “all of a sudden” as victims lost their properties “before they could reckon what was happening”.

“It was around 6 in the morning when we felt tremors like an earthquake. Within a few minutes, the riverbank began to fall into water which advanced further. We lost our houses barely within half an hour,” said Raimohan Dey, a farm labourer.

An official of the state irrigation department said: “We have already carried out protective works in many erosion-prone areas and riverbanks in Santipur block. But there was no indication of immediate erosion at Char Saragar. Nevertheless, we will take up some temporary work. Major preventive work will be done once the monsoon is over.”

The Nadia district administration has also been mulling an initiative for a fresh vetiver plantation programme as a supplementary measure to protect the erosion-prone banks of the Hooghly in Ranaghat and Kalyani subdivisions.

Nadia, a pioneer in using Vetiver, a type of grass with a mat-like root system that works as soil binder, has asked irrigation officials to provide feedback on the pilot project of 2015 so that similar projects can be taken up in rectifying the loopholes.