Thaindian News

Kolkata, June 6 (IANS) The water level in the Sundarbans’ rivers continued to rise Saturday due to the full moon high tide, but the weakening and diversion of the low pressure zone over the Bay of Bengal has brought some comfort to the thousands of marooned residents of West Bengal’s mangrove forested delta.
“The low-pressure zone has shifted to the northwest Bay of Bengal. It’s likely to cause heavy rain in the northern districts like Darjeeling, Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri,” a Met department official said.

He said: “The depression has by-passed Sundarbans Islands and its adjoining region.”

However, the water level in the rivers and estuaries of the Sundarbans continued to rise because of the advancing full moon high tide. The saline water of the seas has also entered some of the villages, forcing their residents to leave.

“Sea water has entered Sitarampur, South Surendraganj and Sidannagar area. We’ve already evacuated a number of families from the low-lying areas to relatively safer zones. The rest were asked to leave their villages as and when the water level increases due to the full-moon high tide,” Pathar Pratima legislator Yogeswar Das told IANS.

“The nature has partly graced us as the low pressure zone has changed its direction to the northern side of West Bengal.

“The water level, however, is likely to increase in the next couple of days due to natural reasons,” he said.

The entire Sundarbans region - areas like Gosaba, Patharpramita, Kultali, Hingalganj, Basanti, Sagar, Mousuni and others - has been ravaged by the cyclone, which left 133 people dead in its wake.