Unrelenting downpour caused the seven upper-dam reservoirs of five rivers in Bengal Jharkhand border to touch maximum flood-level, posing severe threat to innumerable habitats in the lower catchment areas of the key rivers.

In many blocks in the lower catchments in Burdwan East, Howrah, Hooghly, Bankura, the disaster management teams and rescue experts of the state civil defence have been put on high alert, besides, evacuation from several villages in Burdwan East and Bankura have already been kicked off after the discharge rate of Durgapur Barrage was escalated to 2.21 lakh cusecs at 5 pm today.

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The water level of Massanjore reservoir of Mayurakshi river recorded 386 ft against maximum flood level of 398 ft. The upper dams of the Damodar at Tenughat, Maithon and Panchet have  recorded 850 ft, 480 ft & 261 ft against their MFLs of 864 ft, 495 ft & 435 ft respectively.

The Damodar Valley Corporation officials said: “The outflow in acre-feet from the upper dams in past 24 hours were 7,435, 23,430 & 40,049 acre-ft respectively, which are likely to increase in next 24 hours.

“The incessant rainfall recorded in the upper catchment districts of the Damodar have added to the dam discharge before hitting the Durgapur Barrage lockgates.

Gangajalghanti Saltora in Bankura recorded 371 mm & 297 mm precipitation, besides, 345 mm in Asansol and 220 mm in Durgapur. “We were compelled by the circumstances to increase discharge beyond 2.21 lakh cusecs in the evening,” said Gautam Banerjee, Assistant Engineer with the Damodar Headworks today.

“We have geared up relief and rescue teams as our blocks like Raina-1,2, Khandaghosh, Jamalpur, Galsi-1,2 are most vulnerable to Damodar inundation,” said Priyanka Singla, DM, Burdwan East. She added: “In blocks like Ketugram-1,2, Mongalkote the Ajoy is posing threat especially after discharge crossed 1.40 lakh cusecs at 2 pm.”

Reservoir level of Hinglow dam of the Ajoy was at 324 ft at 2 pm against MFL of 324 ft and the water level of Chandil dam on Subarnarekha near Jamshedpur was at 593 ft against MFL of 630 ft. This river endangers Purulia and Jhargram as the outflow crossed 22391 acre-feet at 2 pm today.

The key rivers received 2.08 lakh acre-ft of water due to rains and released 1.36 lakh acre-feet in past 24 hours, state irrigation department officials said.