New York Times (May 28, 2012)
May 28, 2012, 5:38 AM
Three Years After Cyclone, Changed Lives in Sundarbans
By ANURADHA SHARMA
Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters
A man carries his bicycle to a safe place on the outskirts of Siliguri,
West Bengal in the aftermath of Cyclone Aila in this May 26, 2009 file
photo.
CHUNAKHALI, West Bengal — May 25 was Ayantika Mandal’s third birthday.
At her home on May 23 in Chunakhali, on the Indian side of the
Sundarbans Delta, she changed into her dotted white dress for a
picture, but refused to smile to the camera. “She is shy with
strangers,” said her mother, Rina. “Otherwise, she is extremely
talkative.”
May 25 was also 54-year-old Bishnu Pradhan’s “third birthday”: “This is
my new life,” said the secretary of the Dishari Farmers’ Club, a
voluntary organization that helps people procure government loans. “I
was reborn on May 25, 2009.”
Anuradha Sharma for The New York Times
Rina with her daughter Ayantika in Chunakhali, West Bengal.
That was the day that Cyclone Aila unleashed its fury on this tidal
country. Around the same time that Ayantika was born on the first floor
of her neighbor’s house, Mr. Pradhan was atop a date palm tree, along
with a snake and a hen, after being flung there by the force of the
flood waters that had broken through embankments and submerged the
village. “We stayed put, the snake and I, for more than five hours,” he
said. “It did nothing to me. It was as scared as I was.”
For the 3.5 million people residing on the islands of the Indian side
of the Sundarbans, home to the world’s largest mangrove forest and the
Royal Bengal Tiger, the cyclone changed their lives forever. The worst
calamity in living memory left about 150 people dead and over 40,000
homes razed.
Used to battling the perils of climate change and conflicts with the
wild, the survivors would have picked up their lives and moved on. But
after Aila it was not that easy. The influx of saline water rendered
the soil unfit for agriculture, the mainstay for over 85 percent of the
residents, forcing many to leave for other places, like Kolkata,
Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, for odd jobs at construction
sites and factories.
Ayantika’s father, Tapan Mandal, was one of them. He now works in a
garment factory in Kolkata. “I used to work as an agricultural
laborer,” Mr. Mandal said in a phone interview. “We lost everything to
Aila — our mud house and stock of food grains. And then for two years,
I had nothing to do because nothing would grow on that land. I barely
could make a living by doing odd jobs here and there till I landed a
job in Calcutta last year. I earn 3,000 rupees ($54) a month now and
don’t want to get back to working in the farms again.”
Swapan Sardar, another former agricultural laborer, is just back after
a four-month stint at a construction site in Kerala. “I will be off
again on June 10,” he said. “It is better there even though it means
hard work and separation from family.”
However, those who stayed in Chunakhali see reasons for hope. “Well,
things are now looking up, though very slowly,” said Madhusudhan
Mandal, who owns about nine bighas (roughly three acres) of
agricultural land. “After two years of complete failure, we were able
to achieve moderate success with the last aman (monsoon) paddy (monsoon
crop). My farm yielded about five quintals (500 kgs) of paddy, which
is still far less than the usual, but I hope it’ll get better in the
coming monsoon season, should the rain gods oblige.”
Mr. Mandal, who also teaches in a local primary school, has even taken
a Kisan Credit Card loan of 25,000 rupees, sponsored by the National
Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development, betting on the hope of a
better agricultural future.
Mr. Pradhan of Dishari Farmers’ Club said, “We have helped about 172
women’s ‘self- help’ groups and 52 men’s ‘joint liability’ groups in
Chunakhali procure easy bank loans totaling up to 5 crore (50 million)
rupees, half of which is meant for farm activities.”
Happy to be spared by the Aila, Mr. Pradhan has resolved to work for
the people and Dishari Farmers’ Club is aimed at that, he said. “We
educate farmers on using farm manure, instead of chemical compounds. We
are also trying some experiments on soil-less agriculture using coco
peat. Besides, we have helped construct concrete buildings for two
primary schools with funds from Round Table India. Our organization’s
next goal is to get potable water supply. With this new life that I
have got, my goal is to be of greater help to the people of my
village,” said Mr Pradhan, who makes a living by selling school
text-books.
All eyes are now on the coming monsoon for irrigating the fields and
washing away the saline content of the soil, which has hit freshwater
aquaculture and vegetable cultivation alike.
“I had a huge fish farm,” said Bholanath Sardar, in whose house
Ayantika was born. “First, I lost fish worth 70,000 rupees to Aila.
And then because of salinity, the new batch of freshwater fish did not
grow in size or numbers and often developed diseases. I have stopped
growing them completely. I hope the rains bring the cure.”
The numbers of Bengali freshwater favorites like koi, magur, singi and
tangra have gone down, the villagers said.
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