Deforestation in the Hills a great threat

The executive engineer of Central Water Commission, Mr Arun Kanti Ghosh today said here that deforestation in the Darjeeling hills and Bhutan pose a major flood threat to the plains of north Bengal.

At a seminar on Flood Forecasting Activities on ‘North Bengal Rivers and Water Resources Development Issues’ today in Jalpaiguri, Mr Ghosh today said that deforestation in the hills was reducing navigability of the rivers in the plains. “The situation is alarming and the threat of a major flood in the plains of north Bengal is very real if such deforestation is not arrested immediately,” he said adding that future floods could be more devastating than that in 1968 and 1993. MORE...