Ravaged areas dread more damage with turn of tide

NORTH AND SOUTH 24-PARGANAS: Around 500 residents tried to fix a 40-feet wide breach in an embankment along the Vidyadhari river at Uchildaha in West Bengal’s North 24-Parganas district amid a trail of destruction Cyclone Amphan has left behind after hitting India’s eastern coast on Wednesday. Residents said they were running out of time as the spring tide, which occurs twice each lunar month, was imminent and they feared further damage.

“If we fail to repair the embankment by 8 pm, the spring tide scheduled tonight [Friday] will leave nothing in this village,” said Manas Mahato, the village head of Uchildaha, about 55km from Kolkata.

The cyclone and the four-metre high storm surge that it triggered breached embankments along major rivers at over 100 places across North 24-Parganas and South 24-Paraganas districts. Residents feared the spring tide may bring another wave of destruction for remote villages because of the breaches.

Shibayan Paloi, a resident of Gobindorampur in South 24 Parganas, said Friday night is most crucial. “It is the new moon and more water will gush in. We will have to go back to the school building where we had taken shelter during the storm.”

The new moon was scheduled on May 22 and scientists said that the spring tide phase, when average tidal ranges are higher, has started. “Embankments along rivers Ichhamoti, Bidyadhari, Dasha, Rayamangal and Bethni have been breached in most areas. The panchayats [village councils] are working to fix the breached embankments and more people were evacuated on Friday to avert further loss of human lives,” said Sukumar Mahato, the West Bengal assembly member from Sandeshkhali.

Several remote islands in the Sunderbans region and coastal blocks still remained disconnected even on Friday as telecommunication services were yet to be restored. But there were reports of major breaches in embankments along the Matla and Raymangal rivers from areas like Patharpratima and Kultali in South 24 Parganas.

Officials said Bidyadhari’s embankment at Minakhan breached at 11 places and hundred`s of houses, fish ponds, and farmland were damaged. In the neighbouring Sandeshkhali, embankments were breached at 15 places.

A North 24-Parganas district official said the evacuated people were kept in 350 relief centres. “We created 100 more shelters to save people from the flooding through breached embankments and the prospect of the spring tide,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Several gram panchayat areas remained cut off as uprooted trees, electric poles, and towers blocked important roads. Some people were trying to repair the embankments, while others repaired their houses in Sarabaria, Muchikhola, Mallickbheri in Minakhan, and Haroa areas of North 24-Parganas. Many residents complained of drinking water shortage.

“Tiger prawns, lobsters... from all fish ponds have been washed away. Fishery sector is estimated to have suffered losses worth ~100 crore in Minakhan,” said Mrityunjay Mondal, a leader of the Trinamool Congress, who was supervising the relief work.