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Cyclone victims inspect the damage to their house in the Sundarbans delta, about 100 km from the Indian city of Kolkata - Source: Reuters -
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Nearly 200 people have been killed by a cyclone that ripped
through Bangladesh and eastern India, while millions remained
marooned by floodwater or forced to live in shelters.
The death toll in Bangladesh rose to more than 130 following
recovery of dozens of bodies, newspapers and private television
channels said, while Indian officials said at least 64 people had
died in West Bengal state.
Cyclone Aila slammed into parts of coastal Bangladesh and eastern
India on Monday, triggering tidal surges and flooding that forced
people from their homes.
Officials in both countries said they feared the death tolls would
rise although relief and rescue efforts were being
intensified.
"Millions of people have been affected by the cyclone, with half a
million in shelters and another half a million forced from their
homes or were marooned," a disaster control official, who asked not
to be identified, told Reuters in Dhaka.
Officials in Bangladesh moved about 500,000 people to temporary
shelters after they left their homes to escape huge tidal waves
churned by winds up to 100 kph.
Heavy rain triggered by the storm also raised river levels and
burst mud embankments in the Sundarbans delta in the neighbouring
eastern Indian state of West Bengal.
"So far, we have got reports of 64 deaths in the state, including
nine deaths in landslides in the Darjeeling hills on Tuesday," West
Bengal's chief secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty told reporters in
Kolkata.
In Bangladesh, the worst affected area was the Satkhira district,
near the port of Mongla, where a local official said 31 bodies were
found in one village.
"The situation here is alarming," Mohammad Abdus Samad, deputy
commissioner of Satkhira, told Reuters by telephone.
Crops damaged
Large areas of crops were destroyed in both countries by the
cyclone, officials said, adding they were assessing the
damage.
Many farmers have lost their rice just ready to be harvested.
"Allah has taken it all from me. I have been made a pauper," said
Mohar Ali, a farmer.
Aila swept many areas still recovering from Cyclone Sidr in
November 2007, which killed 3,500 people in Bangladesh and made at
least a million homeless.
Bangladesh officials said at least 100 people were missing after
Monday's cyclone.
Some aid workers said they feared several hundred people might have
been killed by Aila, which followed the less lethal Cyclone Bijli
that killed a only few people in April.
Army, navy and coastguards were helping civil officials and
volunteers to search for the missing and pick up people marooned in
hundreds of villages, caught in chest or shoulder-high waters,
witnesses said.
"Continuing rain and wind have slowed our efforts," one official
said.
Bangladesh's food and disaster management minister, Abdur Razzaque,
who visited some of the battered areas, said authorities were
trying to bring the marooned families to safety and provide them
food and shelter.
Witnesses said many cyclone survivors faced a shortage of food and
drinking water in areas still under storm surge.
In West Bengal, the Indian army and government aid workers on
Tuesday began an operation to provide relief to more than 400,000
people marooned in the Sundarbans delta region.
"We have moved two columns, each with 100 personnel, to Sundarbans
for relief," said Mahesh Upasani, a defence spokesman.
