Erosion by the River Jamuna continues to wreak havoc at different villages under Islampur and Dewanganj upazila in Jamalpur, rendering at least 800 families homeless in the last two weeks.
About 1,200 houses at 13 villages under the two upazilas have been eroded during the period, leaving around 800 families homeless, local people said.
Besides, a vast track of crop land and many business establishments went into the river water, they said.

The bank of the Ganga in Bhutni where the river has been advancing steadily. Picture by Surajit Roy
Malda, July 28: People living on Bhutni island on the Ganga are facing a dilemma: whether to allow the river to breach the embankment and bring in silt that will enrich the soil, or ask the irrigation department to take steps to stop the flooding.

"If the rising waters of the river breach the embankment and deposit the silt, we will have a green revolution on the island,' a farmer said.

KULPI, July 28: Although soil erosion is an acute problem in Malda and Murshidabad, the situation is not much different at Kulpi in South 24- Parganas. People living in the villages of Hara, Mukundapur, Harinarayanpur and Raytala are haunted by the fear of being deprived of shelter. Major parts of the territories have already been submerged under the river bed.

AZARA, July 27

GALSI (Burdwan), July 24: Indiscriminate felling of trees along the Damodar riverbank has caused extensive erosion in certain villages in Galsi block in Burdwan in the last week. More than a thousand bighas of cultivable land have been washed away and hundreds of houses along the riverbank are under severe threat of being wiped out.
However, the divisional forest authority has made it clear that no permission for tree felling was granted to any individual or a group in the area.

Severe erosion threatens north-west Jorhat villages
JORHAT, July 22: About 20 km from here, the residents of Neol Gaon and 33 other villages under Dergaon Legislative Assembly Constituency in north-west Jorhat are waging a grim struggle against severe erosion which is threatening to uproot them. The Brahmaputra river, which flows close to these villages, is dangerously poised to breach the strategic dyke running along from Khutiapota check bund to Negheriting-Rangagara.

The 103-year-old school being dismantled in Murshidabad's Shekalipur. The river was only 10 metres from the building on Tuesday. A Telegraph picture

Lalgola, July 22: Lying on a cot in the afternoon, Rojefa Bewa had thought she heard claps of thunder.

"My sons had just returned from the field. I told them about it. Then we saw villagers running past our house.

Washing his hands off the devastating floods, Union Minister for Water Resources (MoWR) Prof Saifuddin Soz has clarified that his Ministry cannot control floods but normally comeS into the picture only before and after the onset of the monsoon season.

Briefing newsmen about the achievements of his Ministry, Prof Soz said when any State is hit by floods it is the Union Home Ministry's job to provide relief and rehabilitation. "This Ministry cannot control flood,' he clarified.

India and Bangladesh have signed a pact in New Delhi on July 17 agreeing not to prevent each other from carrying out anti-erosion work along the border in malda district.

The district magistrate of Malda, Chittaranjan Das, said huge plots of Indian land on the border were eroded by the river. "The problem is particularly bad in areas like Old Malda, Habibpur and Bamungola where the border fencing and pillars have gone missing with the Mahananda eating into its banks.'

Deputy Speaker of the Assam Assembly, Pranati Phukan yesterday took stock of the erosion by Dehing river at Jagun village near Naharkatia and announced commencement of anti-erosion works in the affected area. To initiate the anti-erosion project work, Phukan released Rs five lakhs. She also announced that NABARD would step in with Rs 66 lakhs project to check the continuing erosion in the area in the current financial year.