The Ganga eroded its banks and swept away at least 10 houses at Uttar Chachanda village in Murshidabad's Samserganj on Sunday night.

The incident has sparked fear among people living in the area, prompting around 200 families to relocate elsewhere.

In the last 15 days, 27 families have lost their homes to the river in four villages in this area.

"Because of the fear of erosion, around 1,200 people dismantled homes and moved elsewhere. They have taken shelter in educational institutions and many are living under tarpaulins. In the village of Uttar Chachanda, no one slept even for a minute during Sunday night as people cried as they could foresee losing their all to erosion," said a source.

At 11pm on Sunday, the river Ganga suddenly began to swallow chunks of land on which stood the homes of those who lost those at Uttar Chachanda. As the screams and cries of the people wafted across the village, around 4,000 inhabitants of the hamlet gathered on the river bank.

Those whose houses were swept away couldn't take anything out from the houses except money, papers and clothes. In just one hour of erosion, the river ate up 200 metres of land.

While 10 houses were lost to the Ganga, 200 families living near the riverside panicked and removed their goods at night. Sure that they would be the next victims, these people demolished their houses to leave the area with things — bricks, windows and doors — that they could salvage.

Selim Momin, 55, who lost his house, spent Sunday night looking at the Ganga and crying.

Selim said: “I had a house at Aurangabad village in Suti. I sold my ancestral house a couple of years ago and bought land here to live in peace. I left Aurangabad because it had become politically volatile over the last 10 years. I built a home here and got a water connection. Now, I don’t have a house. I can’t think of where to go now. “

The recent spate of erosion in Samserganj started on September 23. On that day, three houses, a mosque and part of a graveyard were washed away at Loharpur village. Then 150 people had been evacuated. Two days later, two houses were eaten up by the river in nearby Pratapganj village. Another 100 people were evacuated on that day. On September 27 and October 4, erosion occurred at Sikdarpurvillage. The erosion over two days swept away 12 houses and 600 people left the village in panic.

The last major erosion occurred on Sunday night at Uttar Chanda village and on Monday around 1,200 people have moved out of the area after dismantling their homes. In all, more than 1,500 have become homeless in the last two weeks.

This year, the state government has allocated 100 crore to carry out erosion prevention work. As stop gap, the administration is using sandbags and bamboo to strengthen the banks but villagers said such efforts should have been taken earlier.“After erosion struck Loharpur and Sikdarpurvillages on September 23 and September 27, sandbags were used as temporary measures and it worked. This should have been done much earlier,” said a villager.

Erosion is threatening NH12, which connects the state’s south to the north, and the Azimganj-Farakka railway lines. After the erosion at Chachanda, the river is only 400 metres from the railway tracks and 500 meters from the national highway.

Samserganj BDO Sujit Chandra Lodh said: “Erosion ate away about 200 metres overnight. At least 10 houses have been washed away. Around 200 houses have been demolished out of fear, while schools in the area have turned into shelters. The irrigation department is working to prevent further erosion.”