It has been weeks since cyclone Amphan ravaged the Sundarbans and yet the trail of destruction it left behind is stark. It may take years to restore soil fertility and the eco-system

While the rest of India and its neighbour Bangladesh might enjoy a full moon, the night of the poornima (full moon) with a luminescent lunar sky full of romantic fantasies in the Sunderbans, on both sides of the border, spells doom, death and destruction these days. After the fierce cyclone Amphan hit West Bengal, Odisha and Bangladesh on May 20, the huge delta region and the largest mangrove area in the world was hit the hardest, putting more than four million human lives on the edge yet again.

The West Bengal Government alone estimated that the damages caused by the cyclone were to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore. And in Bangladesh, there were reports of tens of thousands of homes damaged or destroyed and many villages submerged by storm surges in low-lying coastal areas like Khulna and Satkhira.

Most of the people in the Sunderbans live on the abysmal margins of the economy in congested ghettos across this beautiful landscape surrounded by water and dense green forests, with the man-eating Royal Bengal Tiger and crocodiles a constant threat, even in the so-called buffer zones. Every time a destructive cyclone or storm begins to form in the turbulent waters of the Bay of Bengal, due to the increasing high surface temperature of the sea, it triggers fierce cyclones, often catastrophic, like the cyclone Aila, which hit Bengal and the Sunderbans earlier. Despite the ravages being witnessed in the destruction of water bodies, forests and the expanse of the mangrove green belt due to man-made construction and appropriation of forest land, it is the Sunderbans which bears the brunt of these fast-moving, high-speed cyclones, mostly protecting the mainland and the plains in the rest of Bengal and Bangladesh by assimilating the wind and stopping its speed.

Repeated appeals by environmentalists and experts to stop big thermal power projects and other forms of construction activity have fallen on deaf ears. Protests in Bangladesh against a recent coal-based thermal power project with Indian assistance in the Sunderbans, and that too almost in the core area, have not yielded any results as yet. Protests have been literally banned in Bangladesh and activists in Khulna told this reporter two years ago that even peaceful demonstrations or pamphlet-distribution are not allowed by the Bangladesh Government.

This is despite the fact that top professors and eminent citizens in Khulna and Dhaka University have repeatedly given evidence to the Government that the entire green zone of this ecological hotspot and a world heritage location is being seriously threatened, so much so that even the Royal Bengal Tiger will be forced into displacement. Even journalists are not allowed to enter the area and report, close to Khulna.

Indeed, the tide is a regular feature in this undulating expanse of backwaters, rivers and water bodies across the cluster of many islands, some doomed to disappear and some which reappear as new, tentative spaces of human civilisation. This is almost like the areas close to the Brahmaputra river in Assam after the annual floods, which destroys and submerges vast tracts of land and forests, numerous villages and human habitations.

Now, locals say, when the tide arrives on a full moon night, those who are living in tarpaulins under makeshift shelters surrounded by water, will yet again be doomed as the waters will rise, submerging their fragile homes.

Volunteers and journalists, however, say that the West Bengal Government and the local administration, after initial lethargy, have moved in with great speed to undertake relief operations in the aftermath of the cyclone Amphan and the destruction it left behind as thousands of trees were uprooted in the gales and electricity and telephone lines brought down and houses flattened. Many of Kolkata’s roads are flooded and its 14 million people were left without power for days after the cyclone.

But after the initial hiccups, the entire Public Distribution System (PDS) has been effectively activated and rice, pulses and other essential commodities are being given in the ration shops. Several independent doctors and health workers have moved in from Kolkata to help the locals, as they did after Cyclone Aila hit the Sunderbans.

Besides, the Government, students, young professionals, voluntary groups and others have collected food, medicines, torches and so on and are reaching out to areas where relief has not reached. Anustup Roy, a young freelance photographer in Kolkata, for instance, organised all his friends and well-wishers and moved into many areas like Mohanpur and Sandeshkhali with relief material.

The Jadavpur Commune of the Jadavpur University in Kolkata, which has been relentlessly working in the most remote parts of Kolkata providing dry  rations, cooked food, sanitisers and medicines to cops, slum  dwellers, homeless people, vendors and others since the lockdown, moved in from day one and travelled to Sunderbans to provide relief.

The Bengal Relief Committee, in the first instance, almost immediately called for relief materials, such as tarpaulins, clothes, sanitary napkins, dry food, bottles of Zeoline, camphor, torches with batteries and so on.

They clearly stated that they wanted 10x12 feet tarpaulin sheets as a basic requirement. Several national  and international NGOs have joined this effort by the Bengal Relief Collective, which also comprises students and teachers, including from JNU and other campuses. They used local fishermen, boatmen and others to move into north and eastern Sunderbans. They used launch boats while initially stocking the relief material at Hasnabad and Kwakdip.

It has been weeks since cyclone Amphan ravaged the Sundarbans, and yet the trail of destruction it left behind is stark. Many islands, where people subsist on fishing, farming and catching crabs, are still submerged under saline water, which rises and recedes with every tide, finding its way inland through broken embankments. Where flood waters have evaporated, tall trees with decaying leaves and ravaged farms and fields stand testimony to the excessive salt which has left large swathes of land barren, unfit for agriculture for at least the next few years.

Almost all mud houses are broken — some have only a section of a wall, some just the pillars, and some, nothing at all except for a few broken, battered pieces of wood from frames. People in Sagar and Patharpratima islands said the fury of the storm was so massive, asbestos sheets and tiles of roofs were flying like birds.

Almost all of the Sundarbans is still under complete darkness. Electric poles and wires lie strewn around arterial roads, making movement of traffic difficult. Repair work began this week but electricity workers on ground said many of their colleagues have travelled back home during the lockdown, resulting in labour shortage, which would certainly delay restoration of power.

Almost everywhere, panchayat pradhans and politicians are missing in action — people in several islands said they have not seen them even once since the lockdown began. In some villages, panchayat members have begun collecting identity documents from people who have lost homes and farms, so that they can be paid the compensation announced by the State Government. But allegations of corruption have also begun to surface at the same time.

In some cases, ruling party cadres are accused of allegedly threatening Opposition party supporters who try to access relief or speak about corruption in relief disbursal. The BJP has done little on the ground except spread discontent against the State Government.

Several civil society groups like Bangla Sansktiti Mancha and Amphan Relief Network, NGOs like Mukti, Prameya and Praajak and individuals with near and dear ones in the Sundarbans have been working tirelessly through these last two weeks, distributing dry ration, tarpaulins, water, medicines and cooked food through community kitchens in numerous islands. “The big relief is that the Government is moving in with the public distribution system, distributing rice and basic food to the marooned locals. One hopes that this relief moves at a war-footing in the days to come,” said a journalist reporting from 24 Parganas.

(Sengupta is a senior journalist. The article is co-authored by Aritra Bhattacharya reporting from the Sunderbans)