The bungalow along the river Jayanti in north Bengal’s Buxa Tiger Reserve faced a threat of getting destroyed last Friday as the river got swollen and moved at
least five metres closer following heavy rain and flash floods.

State forest department officials said they, along with the irrigation department and
the Alipurduar district administration, set up a temporary embankment using sandbags and boulders and are now installing gabion structures to prevent the river from advancing further.

The bungalow, which forest officials said was built in the 1950s, was destroyed in a fire in June 2011 and a new structure came up in 2015.

There was heavy rainfall in the Sinchula hill ranges of Bhutan, near the tiger reserve, on Friday and that caused the Jayanti to swell and suddenly change course.

“The Jayanti is about 25m away from the forest bungalow. On Friday, it was flowing 20m away. The water level rose more than 4m from the river bed. If not prevented, the river could have completely destroyed the bungalow,” Apurba Sen, field director, Buxa Tiger Reserve, told The Telegraph on Sunday.

Debal Ray, the principal chief conservator of forests and chief wildlife warden of Bengal, said the swollen river was threatening the foundation of the bungalow.

“The foundation was eroding fast. Left unchecked, the river could have brought the bungalow down in days,” he said. “The river swelled significantly because of the non-stop rain. The water is well above the danger mark.”

The bungalow is very popular for its location. It offers a panoramic view of the Jayanti.

With the help of the district administration, the forest department procured extractor with chained wheels that was used to extract rocks and earth from the river bed to create a temporary embankment. Irrigation department engineers were brought in to guide the forest department.

“This helped in reducing the water level of the portion of the river that had come closer to the bungalow,” said Sen.

He said thousands of sandbags were used to create the temporary embankment and prevent the Jayanti from advancing further.

“However, the embankment was a temporary measure and could not have withstood the pressure of water for long. So, irrigation department engineers advised installing gabion structures for permanent reinforcement,” said Sen, the field director of the Buxa Tiger Reserve.

Gabion structures are cages filled with boulders, rocks and concretes tied with wires.

“There are 15 such structures in front of the bungalow,” said Sen. Till Sunday evening, installation of all 15 structures was complete, said forest officials. On Sunday, the river was again flowing through its old course, said officials.

Sen said it was a challenge to bring the excavator and rocks and boulders through the forest into the river bank.

Alipurduar town is more than 30km from the forest bungalow.

“The police and the administration helped pull in resources,” said Sen.

On June 19, a fire destroyed the 57-year-old wooden Holong Bungalow in Alipurduar’s Jaldapara National Park.

A new bungalow will come up at the site, said forest officials.

“The elevation, design and everything else will be modelled on the old bungalow. The design is being studied now. Construction will begin soon,” said the forest official in north Bengal.