Aila damaged solar panels worth Rs.50 crore in Sundarbans

October 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government should encourage small scale solar energy projects in rural areas along with the big ticket projects if it wants to meet the ambitious target of generating 20,000 MW solar power by 2020, an industry body said Tuesday. "If the government wants to generate 20,000 MW of solar power, large scale projects alone won't do.

July 6th, 2009 KOLKATA - The allocation of Rs.1,000 crore in the union budget Monday for rebuilding the infrastructure damaged by Cyclone Aila in West Bengal was welcomed by the state government and NGOs working there, but they said the money was insufficient. Kanti Ganguly, the minister in charge of the Sundarbans region, said: "We welcome this announcement as the first phase of disbursement.

June 16th, 2009 Hiring underway at Midland solar panel plantMIDLAND, Mich. — Hiring is underway at Evergreen Solar Inc.'s new $55 million plant in Midland, which will make silicon components for solar panels.

June 15th, 2009 KOLKATA - Villagers in the remote islands of the Sundarbans can now avail of a new variety of solar lanterns that can be charged directly under sunlight. Their solar power panels in the mangrove forests, the only source of electricity in the area, were damaged by the Cyclone Aila earlier last month.

June 9th, 2009 KOLKATA - West Bengal's ruling Left Front (LF) Tuesday said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government should declare cyclone Aila, that hit parts of West Bengal coasts May 25, as a national disaster, considering the gravity of the damage it caused in Sundarban Islands. "We're demanding that the Aila damages be declared as a national disaster and seek the centre's help to carry out rescue operations in the cyclone-hit Sundarbans area," state LF chairman Biman Bose told a press conference here.

June 7th, 2009 GOSABA - The aftermath of devastating cyclone Aila that ravaged large parts of the West Bengal delta May 25 could cause lasting ecological damage to the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, experts fear. Environment experts and wildlife conservationists say the huge displacement caused by the cyclone may force many of the estimated 400,000 people who live among the mangrove forests, the narrow creeks and the wide rivers to enter protected forests, thereby seriously threatening one of the richest but most fragile ecosystems on earth.

June 7th, 2009 KOLKATA - Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Trinamool Congress leader C.M Jatua Sunday alleged that West Bengal's ruling Left Front government has taken no initiative to maintain the natural embankments in the Sundarbans region. "The situation in Sundarban Islands is dangerous, especially after the cyclone Aila.

June 6th, 2009 GOSABA - A day before the full moon high tide coming close on the heels of the devastation caused by Cyclone Aila, the West Bengal government has admitted that it would be unable to repair a large part of the 400 km of damaged embankments in the mangrove-forested delta of the Sundarbans. The full moon high tide scheduled Sunday, considerably stronger than a normal high tide, has given rise to fears of fresh inundation and consequent massive devastation in an area where around 400,000 people live.

June 2nd, 2009 KOLKATA - West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was heckled and jeered by the disgruntled survivors of Cyclone Aila Tuesday when he visited a relief camp in Sunderbans, while a ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) legislator was smeared with mud. Venting their anger after the devastating cyclone caused death and destruction last month, villagers at a relief camp asked the chief minister why the state government had failed to build concrete embankments in Sundarbans despite being in power for more than past three decades.

June 2nd, 2009 KOLKATA - Paying a visit to the cyclone-ravaged areas of coastal West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Tuesday proposed that residents of various islands in the Sundarbans help rebuild the embankments damaged by Cyclone Aila. They would be paid for the work they do, he said.

May 31st, 2009 KOLKATA - Demanding immediate and proper relief for the people affected by cyclone Aila, the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) staged a protest march here on Saturday. The members and supporters of the SUCI took to streets demanding food, drinking water and medical teams for the cyclone-hit people in South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas.

May 30th, 2009 KOLKATA - The West Bengal government will rebuild 400 kms of embankments destroyed by Cyclone Aila in the mangrove forests of Sundarbans in an effort to save the region from any more floods in the coming monsoon. "We'll start constructing 400 kms of embankments in Sundarbans and will try to finish the work within the next one week," state Irrigation Minister Subhas Naskar told reporters after surveying the cyclone-hit villages in the Sundarbans Saturday.

May 30th, 2009 KOLKATA - Congress Party supporters protested on Saturday against inefficient disaster management by the State authorities following cyclone Aila's havoc in different parts of the state. Protestors said that the relief work being carried out by the State Government was inadequate and much more needed to be done for affected people's actual help.

May 26th, 2009 KOLKATA - Cyclone Aila, that hit the east coast of India Monday devastating over 100,000 people in the Sundarbans delta region of crops and lifestock, was a grim consequence of climate change, say experts. NGOs who work in the area said the main dykes in major islands such as Sagar, Patharpratima, Sandeshkhali I and II, Hingalganj, Kultoli, Mousuni and many small islands in the Gosaba area had been breached, and brackish water had entered farmlands and freshwater ponds during the cyclone Monday, ruining the crops and killing the fish.

May 26th, 2009 KOLKATA - Cyclone Aila that hit the eastern Indian coast scared a Royal Bengal tiger out of the Sundarbans national park and into an inhabited area in the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, according to information reaching here Tuesday. The tiger moved near Jamespur village in Satjelia island where it terrorised villagers for a whole day before returning to the protected forest area, said A.