Protests in Indian city over cyclone recovery delay

Thousands took to the streets of the Indian city of Kolkata on Saturday to protest against what they said was the slow government response to power cuts and flooding after a devastating "super cyclone".

The death toll in India and Bangladesh from Cyclone Amphan's rampage along the Bay of Bengal coast rose to at least 112 on Saturday, as authorities struggled to deal with the aftermath of the storm while also trying to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

With many areas still flooded and electricity still cut by the storm, Kolkata residents vented their anger for a second day, demanding faster action to get the city of 15 million people working again.

Police said more than 5,000 people took part in different demonstrations early Saturday while witnesses said there were more.

The storm knocked out transformer stations setting off spectacular explosions across Kolkata. About 20 people were killed in the city, many of them electrocuted after venturing into the floods.

Many streets are still blocked by trees and water, and engineers are struggling to get to some parts to restore power.

"The coronavirus made our lives miserable, Cyclone Amphan turned it into hell," Subash Biswas, principal of a state-run college in Kolkata told AFP.

Cyclone Amphan was the fiercest storm to hit India and Bangladesh since 1999. At least 86 people are now reported dead in India and 26 in Bangladesh.

The toll was much less than previous storms in recent decades, which sometimes claimed thousands of lives. About three million people were moved away from the coast before Amphan struck.

Kolkata's municipal chairman Firhad Hakim has warned that "it will take at five to six days to pump out the water from streets, to clear the uprooted trees and restore the water supply".

Authorities are also trying to clear floodwater from Kolkata airport before domestic flights resume across India on Monday after a two-month coronavirus shutdown.

State disaster minister Javed Khan told AFP that hundreds of villages had been flooded after more than 70 kilometres (43 miles) of river embankments were washed away.

"The devastation was so intense that many areas remain inaccessible even three days after the cyclone," he said.

The United Nations has warned that the saltwater which flooded inland areas could affect local agriculture for up to three years.

South Asia cyclone death toll passes 100
Kolkata (AFP) May 22, 2020 - At least 106 people died in the fiercest cyclone to hit Bangladesh and eastern India since 1999, officials said Friday as aerial footage revealed immense flooding in coastal areas.

Amphan, only the second "super cyclone" ever recorded over the Bay of Bengal, bulldozed houses, tore off roofs, uprooted trees and left millions without power when it hit late on Wednesday.

Mamata Banerjee, premier of West Bengal said Friday that 80 people died in the Indian state, while Bangladesh's toll rose to 26, health department spokesperson Ayesha Akhter said.

The total was much lower than the many thousands of fatalities recorded in previous cyclones, thanks to better forecasting and the timely evacuation of over three million people.

However, huge damage was done in coastal areas as vast volumes of seawater rushed inland, inundating villages and shrimp farms that are vital to the Bangladeshi economy.

The United Nations in Geneva said Friday that the saltwater is expected to have "a severe impact on livelihoods for the next 2-3 years".

West Bengal's capital Kolkata was also badly hit, with 19 dead, parts of the old city flooded and hangar roofs at the airport caved in on top of aircraft.

The bodies of 11 people who were electrocuted were recovered from the flooded streets.

The storm also blew off the black weathercock on top of a 205-year-old church in Kolkata city centre that has survived countless cyclones before.

"It was as old as the church," Father Swarup Bar told AFP. "We have only been able to trace small pieces of one of the wings of the cock so far."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday morning flew over the affected areas by helicopter and announced $132 million in government aid.

"The whole country is now with West Bengal at this critical time and we will jointly rebuild the areas ruined by the cyclone," Modi said.

The European Union also announced initial funding of 500,000 euros ($545,000) for India and 1.1 million euros for Bangladesh.

- Habitats damaged -

The damage did not appear to be as bad as feared in the Sunderbans, the vast mangrove forest area home to Royal Bengal tigers, Ganges dolphins and other endangered species straddling India and Bangladesh.

"Some Keora trees in the forest have been uprooted and some branches were broken. But overall the damage was not big," said Amir Hossain Chowdhury, Bangladesh's chief forester.

He said that 65 of the forest's 81 freshwater ponds that are vital for local fauna would now be pumped to remove seawater brought in by a smaller-than-predicted storm surge.

"This is a temporary setback for the forest's wildlife including the Bengal Tigers, monkeys, spotted deer and others," Chowdhury told AFP.

Four teams would also scour the dense 140,000-hectare forest to inspect the damage to wildlife, but so far no dead bodies had been found, he added.

Like in previous cyclones, the vast Sunderbans area, a UNESCO world heritage site dubbed the "lungs of Bangladesh", acted as a brake on the weather system.

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'Super cyclone' barrels towards Bangladesh, India
Khulna, Bangladesh (AFP) May 20, 2020
Several million people sheltered and prayed for the best on Wednesday as one of the fiercest cyclones in decades roared towards Bangladesh and eastern India, with forecasts of a potentially devastating and deadly storm surge. Authorities have scrambled to evacuate low lying areas in Amphan's projected trail of destruction, only the second "super cyclone" to form over the Bay of Bengal since records began. But their task is complicated by the need to follow precautions to prevent the spread of th ... read more