The flood situation in Jalpaiguri district of north Bengal improved today with water level receding from most of the rivers after the incessant rains stopped last evening.

However, Chapadanga and Balapara villages were inundated after an irrigation bund breached today, causing the waters of Dharala and Teesta to merge.

Four relief camps were opened in those areas and affected people were shifted to higher places, official sources said.

The State Irrigation Minister, Mr Manas Bhuniya, who visited Khayerkata village of Nagrakata block, said the district administration had been instructed to take urgent measures to provide relief to the people and to keep him informed.

Two trained elephants were deployed yesterday to rescue over 350 marooned residents of Khayerkata village after the lone bridge linking it to Dhupguri town had collapsed.

Mr Bhuniya said construction of a bridge was urgently required in the area.

Two units of National Disaster Relief Force had been deployed to work in the flood-affected area of the district.

One person was swept away and vast areas of the district were submerged following heavy rains and floods in rivers in the sub-Himalayan region of West Bengal since Sunday last.

The water level in the Teesta river had touched the extreme danger mark and, along with rivers Reti and Dudhua, had flooded large tracts of Jalpaiguri district, including Khayerkata village and Dhupguri, a tea area.

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