Sylhet Bureau

Continuous heavy rainfall over the past few days in India's Meghalaya state has triggered a massive onslaught of upstream hilly torrents across Sunamganj's border rivers, including the Surma, Chela, Khasiamara, Jadukata, Charagaon Chhara, Kalagaon Chhara, and Bagli Chhara. The sudden rush of water has led to a rapidly deteriorating flood situation, completely severing road communication between the Sunamganj district headquarters and Tahirpur upazila.

A spot visit on Friday revealed that key transport arteries, including the vital Sunamganj–Bishwamandarpur–Tahirpur road, have been completely submerged under floodwaters. The inundation has also brought all trade operations to a grinding halt at Tahirpur’s three main land customs stations—Borchhara, Charagaon, and Bagli. Most of the coal and limestone depots in these areas are currently waterlogged, suspending all mineral transportation and loading activities.

Tahirpur UNO Mehedi Hasan Manik confirmed on Friday evening that road communication from the upazila headquarters to all surrounding unions via paved and unpaved roads has been disconnected. He added that several lakh residents across the upazila have been left stranded by the rising waters.

Meanwhile, although local day laborers have been forced to suspend sand extraction from the turbulent Jadukata river, hundreds of people have spent the last few days salvaging floating coal washed down by the hill torrents into the Borchhara, Burungachhara, Charagaon, and Kalagaon border streams.

Taking advantage of this situation, local smuggling syndicates have reportedly become active, using the cover of floating coal to illicitly bring in smuggled Indian coal and stockpile it across various residential houses and commercial depots in the Charagaon and Borchhara sectors. Local administrative monitoring has been intensified to curb these illegal activities amidst the ongoing natural disaster.