- Thousands of used books damaged by rainwater dumped into garbage bins at Kolkata's College Street
- Hundreds of new books ready for binding in warehouses also damaged
- Publishers and booksellers face losses running into multiple lakhs ahead of Durga Puja
The Kolkata downpour has left a trail of damage at Asia's largest secondhand books market in College Street. Thousands of books damaged by rainwater have been dumped into garbage bins on both sides of the street.
Booksellers complained they face huge losses and it would take a long time to recover if they don't get help. They are trying to salvage the big pile of damaged books as much as possible.
The damaged books also include new titles which have been printed and kept ready ahead of the festival season based on online orders. All the printed material kept in storage for binding have been damaged by rainwater, the booksellers said.
"We have lost a lot. We have no idea how we will recover from this loss. This is also Puja season. There was no rain warning, we could not do anything," a bookseller at College Street told NDTV.
The loss is heartbreaking as some of the books are very rare, the traders said.
Kolkata received 251.4 mm rainfall in less than 24 hours, the highest since 1986 and the sixth-highest single-day rainfall in the last 137 years, only behind the record 369.6 mm in 1978, 253 mm in 1888, and 259.5 mm in 1986.
The Publishers and Booksellers Guild is calculating the total loss that booksellers would have to bear just days before Durga Puja, West Bengal's biggest festival.
Guild executive committee member and one of the owners of Dey's Publishing, Apu Dey, said every single publisher - big or small - had to bear the brunt of nature's fury, and the damage was more severe than what happened during Cyclone Amphan in 2020.
"The entire boipara (bibliophile's hub) is in disarray as the natural disaster dealt a blow to our business. While the total loss will run into multiple lakhs, we will be able to arrive at an approximate figure after the Durga Puja," Mr Dey told news agency PTI.
He said his publication incurred Rs 5-6 lakh losses as printed pages, which were kept on the floors of godowns, courtyard and stores before binding, were destroyed beyond restoration.
He said it would help if local clubs can take initiatives to support booksellers in whatever capacity possible as they did following the damage in the wake of Cyclone Amphan.
Ten people were killed, nine of them due to electrocution, in the torrential overnight rain in Kolkata. Adjoining districts were paralysed on Tuesday, and air, rail and road transport had to be stopped.
