Cyclone Amphan Together let us build from the wreckage

March 9, 2023

Even as our planet is in the grip of the COVID Pandemic, a furious cyclone , Amphan, the worst in living memory, has hit the South Bengal coastline, bringing unprecedented misery and destruction to millions. With an eye that was 30 kms in diameter and a windspeed of 185 km/ hr during landfall, the cyclone left a trail of devastation in the coastal areas, with the people gasping for survival. Thousands were evacuated and found temporary shelter in cyclone shelters, flood centres, school buildings in the ravaged areas. In Sundarban, the ecologically fragile riverine landscape, whichever way you look now, there is only despair and destruction. Thousands of mud houses have been flattened, temporary roofs have been blown away, thousands of trees felled in a matter of hours. Earthen embankments have been breached in several areas, and surging, frothing saline water has flooded hundreds of hectares of land, fish ponds, vegetable gardens. The paddy fields have been inundated, banana orchards spoilt, livestock destroyed, betel vines, paddy storehouses reduced to shambles. Till date, after 5 days of the cyclone, there is no news from Sagar, except one Gram Panchayat in Dhaspara II. No news yet from Buraburir tot, G plot island. Namkhana, Mousuni, Haripur – trees bear a deadly look, as if singed and burnt. Heavy damages to the earthen embankments have  wrecked life in Deulbari, Kaikhali,  Debipur, Bhubaneswari, Bongheri, Andheria areas of Kultali block, Ramchandrakhali ,