River erosion: Malda devours homesteads, croplands

Sudden erosion by the Malda river has taken a severe turn at bordering Malgara village in Kaliganj upazila, engulfing portion of an important road, croplands and several homesteads.

Meanwhile, several thousand residents of the riverside village are living amid worries, after erosion by the river turned furious since last Friday.

Malda is a trans-boundary river that flows through ​​Cooch Behar district of the Indian state of West Bengal before entering into Bangladesh.

Local people said erosion by the river started intensifying since last Friday and has already devoured at least 15 dwelling houses and nearly 100 bighas of agricultural lands at the village in the last few days.

Moreover, over a hundred homesteads, several hundred bighas of arable land and an important road are at risk of being eroded by the furious river at any time.

Besides, a large portion of the bordering road has already been devoured by the river and the rest part of the entire road is also on the verge of collapse, which would snap road communication with other adjacent villages.

One the other hand, a concrete bridge on the road is also at serious risk of being eroded by the river at any time.

Currently, villagers crossing the road on foot as no vehicles can use the broken road.

Farmer Ismal Hossain of the village said his entire homestead and one bigha of arable land have been devoured by the river in the last two days.

Another five to six bighas of land are also at risk of being devoured.

Goral Union Parishad (UP) Chairman Nurul Amin said upazila administration and water development board (WDB) authorities have visited the affected areas and assured the villagers that they would take immediate measures to check the sudden erosion.

Lalmonirhat WDB Executive Engineer Sunil Kumar said work to prevent erosion by the Malda river will start soon after getting allocation from the higher authorities.