Floods began to rise swiftly in the remote Jiti Tea Garden around 3:30 am on October 5. Panic spread through the community. Amid the darkness, one call changed everything.

Eighteen-year-old Krintika Munda, a Class 11 student, sensed the looming danger and took decisive action — directly contacting Mal SDO Shubham Kundal, IAS. Her alert from the tea garden, located near the Bhutan border, became the trigger for a coordinated rescue mission that would save hundreds of lives in flood-hit Nagrakata.

Responding to her call, the district administration, under the leadership of Jalpaiguri District Magistrate Shama Parveen, moved swiftly to begin focusing on the most vulnerable — pregnant and lactating mothers stranded in the submerged tea gardens.

The next day, in the early hours, around the B

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