The rain-fed Karala river that flows through the Jalpaiguri district flooded its banks as well as some 150 hectares of tea plantation of a tea estate on the outskirts of Jalpaiguri town on Saturday morning.

The river also damaged a culvert, some workers' quarters and roads within the garden.

“In the morning, the river flooded plantations in five sections of the garden. Tea bushes across 150 hectares are submerged. The river has damaged some nurseries where tea saplings are readied. We are yet to assess the damage,” said Santanu Basu, the senior manager of Karala Valley tea estate.

Around 10km away from Jalpaiguri town, the tea estate has plantations spread across 300 hectares. There are 1,100 permanent workers and 400 casual workers in the garden, which has a population of around 5,000 people.

Representatives of the management and the workers said water from the river has also flooded a number of workers’ colonies.

“The main culvert that connects the rest of the tea estate with the Lalitpur division of the garden has been damaged by the river. In case of a medical emergency, it would not be possible to bring an ambulance here. The culvert has to be repaired immediately,” said Sukra Oraon, a worker of the Lalitpur division of the garden.

A section of residents said that earlier work would be carried out on the banks of the river to prevent erosion and flooding.

“However, some unscrupulous people are cutting away earth from the river’s banks illegally for sale. That is why the river is eroding and now it has even flooded the tea garden. If the police and the administration do not curb this illegal practice, the garden will face floods in future too,” said a senior worker.

Moumita Godara Basu, the district magistrate of Jalpaiguri, said they were gathering information about affected areas.

Rainfall also led to inundation in some low-lying areas of Cooch Behar district. However, no fresh landslides in the hills were reported on Saturday. The rainfall in the past 24 hours, till 8.30am on Saturday, was comparatively low in the hills.

Sources in the regional Met office in Calcutta forecast more rain
across north Bengal and Sikkim during the next four-five days.