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Jaigaon, a densely populated town on India’s border with Bhutan, is facing a crisis of poor waste disposal, reports contributor Chandrani Sinha for Mongabay India. Much of the town’s plastic,…

Jaigaon, a densely populated town on India’s border with Bhutan, is facing a crisis of poor waste disposal, reports contributor Chandrani Sinha for Mongabay India. Much of the town’s plastic, construction and medical waste gets dumped along the banks of the Torsa River. The river originates in the Chumbi Valley in the eastern Himalayas and flows through Bhutan before entering India at Jaigaon. Locals say they worry the rampant river pollution could impact the image of Jaigaon, a key tourist and trade point between India and Bhutan. “Our towns share an international border and a lot of tourist footfall takes place every year, as the town is growing population-wise, we demand a municipality facility to manage the solid waste and also other issues of Jaigaon,” Jayant Mundra, convenor for the Joint Forum of Business Association Jaigaon and vice president of the Jaigaon Merchant Association, told Mongabay India. Mundra added that during rains, much of the waste enters the river, and ends up in homes and public places. Environmental activists said the dumped waste is often openly burned, which releases toxic pollutants into the air. Downstream, the Torsa flows through ecologically sensitive floodplains that serve as habitat for Indian rhinos, elephants,...

Dark grey smoke curls above the Torsa riverbank in Jaigaon, a crowded border town of West Bengal, India, separating India and Bhutan. Plastic waste, medical refuse, construction debris and household waste lie scattered across the river bed and cows and dogs forage through the garbage. In January, an Instagram reel of this area drew a long-ignored environmental crisis into public notice. In it, a young content creator who goes by the name Rock Lama on Instagram, stood before the smouldering waste, appealing to the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for immediate intervention to stop what he describes as the routine illegal dumping of the town’s waste along the river. The video by the 24-year-old Jaigaon resident, spread widely across social media platforms, sparking discussions about rural waste management, governance, environmental negligence, and the growing waste crisis in smaller towns and Panchayat areas where populations have increased with time and waste has increased proportionately, without infrastructure to manage it. A border town struggles under its own waste Jaigaon is a densely populated commercial town with approximately 100,000 residents and serves as a crucial gateway between India and Bhutan. Its markets bustle with cross-border trade, tourism, and transport activity. Yet, beneath...

The state government has been demanding such information for a long time, particularly since a devastating flood in north Bengal in October 2025 was triggered by the overtopping of the Tala Dam in western Bhutan due to a sudden surge in the rivers of the country as a result of extremely intense rainfall. While more than 70 rivers, apart from innumerable rivulets, are shared by Bhutan and northern West Bengal, the major ones are the Jaldhaka, Torsa, Raidak and Sankosh. Range of decisions “Recently an Indian delegation, that consisted a senior official from the state irrigation department, held a secretary-level meeting with their counterparts from Bhutan, and took several decisions which are expected to help us taking timely steps in future to counter situations triggered by sudden intense rainfall in the upstream areas of Bhutan,” confirmed Manas Bhuniya, Bengal irrigation minister, to this correspondent recently. “This is a result of our constant persuasion with the Union government that enhanced and real time rainfall data from Bhutan should be made available to us,” claimed the minister. “Both sides (India and Bhutan) agreed to enhance cooperation on the sharing of hydrological and meteorological data to address recent water-related challenges and to promote...

Bruno Saraiva and Bruna Guaraño played the jockeys Cuando Ficarum Sientes to win the duel in Brasileira. Bruna, comprehensive, I will be organizing an event with Brazilian Pensando and Fonseca's Torsa as the core. Bruno Saraiva and Bruna Guaraño Rio Open Image: Alexandre Araújo / UOL Estava's Primelo set checks Jogo, Instagram and Rio Open status. Tel Jogo do Joan Celia Regal.