The famous College Street of Kolkata, which is referred to as the largest book market in the world, is still recovering from the massive floods that hit the area on September 23, 2025. A large number of books and printing supplies were damaged due to the torrential rains inundating shops and publishers' warehouses.
The loss has been highly emotional for the literary fraternity of the city as well as financially devastating. When routine life resumed after Durga Puja holidays, the magnitude of the loss became evident. Publishers & Booksellers Guild's Tridib Chatterjee estimated the total damage in the market to be around ₹2 crore. Patra Bharati, the publishing house of Chatterjee, suffered losses of ₹9 lakh, including essentital books, paper, hardboards, and cover jackets, as reported by the Hindu.
Durga Puja deluge leaves Kolkata publishers count losses
For major Bengali publishing houses, the sight was heartbreaking. As per reports of The Hindu, Subhankar Dey of Dey’s Publishing said his firm lost ₹8–9 lakh worth of books. “Fire and water- they are like Mahishasura for books. I’ve never seen so much water,” he said, reflecting emotionally on the state. Smaller publishers faced even worse setbacks, particularly with newly printed Durga Puja releases. Sukanya Mondal, CEO of Deep Prakashan, said over 1,000 books were lost, amounting to ₹3 lakh. The venerable Dasgupta and Co., Kolkata's oldest bookstore, lost a whopping ₹40 lakh, including more than 2,000 books. "Fifty-two of our shelves were underwater. Rare books, documents, computers - everything was damaged beyond redemption," said Arabinda Dasgupta, managing director, who denounced the absence of government action in protecting the city's educational hub.
Meanwhile, the literary world has rallied around. The State Government must aid young publishers and improve drainage systems, opined writer Amar Mitra. Gaurav Adhikari pointed out that Bengali readers' solidarity was shown by how many volunteered to buy crumpled books at half price. "Even experienced people in the trade said they had never seen anything like it," grieved Santanu Ghosh of Book Farm.
The floods have been a disquieting reminder of the vulnerability of Kolkata's literary tradition, and of the resolve of its booksellers and readers, as College Street recovers laboriously.
