A SPATE OF HUMAN FOLLY

The waters that drowned North Bengal and dislodged mountainsides in October were made of a cocktail of river basins choked by urbanisation, deforestation and climate change. Urgent action is needed to restore an ecological balance

- By ARKAMOY DATTA MAJUMDAR

THE ALARM THAT THE COMBINED FORCES OF CLIMATE CHANGE and human action could spell disaster for the fragile ecosystem of North Bengal had been raised in recent years, but ignored. That proved costly, as on October 5-6, a calamity of enormous proportions struck this region of mountains, lush foothills (the Dooars) and alluvial plains watered by fast-moving streams. Over 300 mm rainfall in 12 hours triggered hundreds of landslides in the Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts.

Rivers broke their banks, roads were blocked, villages cut off or decimated. The roster of human misery read over 40 dead, with 10,000 sheltering in relief camps. "Of the 32 livestock I had, 22 are either dead or lost. In our tea garden, at least 70 families are affected," says Sikander Majhi, 41, a resident of the Tandu tea garden in the Nagrakata block of Jalpaiguri district. North Bengal had been forewarned too: on October 4, 2023, a glacial lake outburst flood in Sikkim overwhelmed the Teesta III dam and caused havoc downstream.

This latest symptom of a deepening ecological crisis is a deadly brew—rampant concretisation in river channels that reduces the capacity to absorb monsoon water, deforestation that accelerates water runoff and ever-intensifying rainfall.

Politics duly laid its fingers over the calamity. The BJP holds the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government responsible. "TMC-run authorities have allowed illegal sand mining, construction on river beds and felling of trees," says Sukanta Majumdar, BJP leader and Union minister of state for education and development of northeastern region. The TMC claims it is the state which is providing for the victims, while BJP leaders are nowhere to be seen.