Heavy rain threat in south Bengal districts: Met

Torrential rains since Thursday night have inundated large parts of Kolkata and southern Bengal, disrupting daily life and prompting weather alerts, even as meteorologists say the worst may be over.

A deep depression that brought relentless rains to the region has now moved over Jharkhand, near Ranchi, and is expected to shift further west towards central India. However, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast scattered showers across southern Bengal on Saturday, with heavy rainfall likely in districts such as South 24-Parganas, Purulia, and Bankura.

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Officials are not ruling out the risk of flooding, especially in areas already saturated by continuous rain and runoff from Jharkhand. The IMD has issued a heavy rainfall warning for some districts through Tuesday. South 24-Parganas district, part of the vulnerable coastal Sundarbans region, has been experiencing unrelenting rainfall under the depression’s influence. Rivers and the Bay of Bengal remain rough, and water levels have surged due to the new moon tidal effect. Gusty winds are sweeping through the region, and authorities have imposed a ban on fishing in the sea until at least Tuesday.

Local administrations are using loudspeakers to warn residents both by land and water routes. A yellow alert for heavy rain has been issued in the district for Saturday.

Multiple low-lying areas have gone under water, with saline water breaching embankments under pressure from high tidal waves. In Gobardhanpur village of Patharpratima block, a temporary ring embankment under construction was breached on Saturday, flooding the surrounding area with brackish water.

Large swathes of farmland, roads, and ponds now lie submerged. The Saltgheri region of Mousumi Island also reported embankment breaches due to sea surges. Nearly 70 to 80 families have been marooned, with villagers expressing anger over the failure of newly built protective structures. Farmers have reported widespread damage to paddy fields and fisheries, compounding the hardship for communities already grappling with economic stress. The state government said relief and rescue efforts were underway, and engineers were assessing the structural damage to embankments in flood-hit areas.