West Bengal to rebuild 400 km of embankments in Sundarbans

September 7th, 2009 KOLKATA - At least 150,000 people have been rendered homeless due to heavy rainfall in a large portion of southern West Bengal, including Sundarbans, in the past three days, an official said Monday. Houses were swept away during the heavy downpour and embankments were breached at several places in the tidal mangrove forest that is the Sundarbans, forcing villagers to move.

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 30th, 2009 PATHAR PRATIMA - Many of the one million people affected by Cyclone Aila live in small islands amid a maze of rivers and canals in the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest. The topography is making it tougher for them to rebuild their lives.

June 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Saturday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram here and requested for more funds for relief operations after Cyclone Aila devastated parts of the state 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 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 6th, 2009 KOLKATA - The water level in the Sundarbans' rivers continued to rise Saturday due to the full moon high tide, but the weakening and diversion of the low pressure zone over the Bay of Bengal has brought some comfort to the thousands of marooned residents of West Bengal's mangrove forested delta. "The low-pressure zone has shifted to the northwest Bay of Bengal.

June 5th, 2009 KOLKATA - Cyclone Aila that devastated parts of West Bengal last month damaged solar power panels worth Rs.50 crore (Rs.500 million) in the Sundarbans, an official said here Friday. "We've estimated that a huge bulk of solar panel devices worth Rs.50 crore was completely damaged due to cyclone Aila last week in Sundarbans," the managing director of West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation Ltd, S.P Gon Chowdhury told reporters on the sidelines of a enviromental conference.

June 2nd, 2009 KOLKATA - West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday visited cyclone relief camps at Sarberia in North 24 Parganas district. Assuring that the government will provide money to rebuild their houses, he said, "The government will provide the money to rebuild your houses." Bhattacharjee, who talked to people who have taken shelter in the relief camp, demanded that they be provided permanent shelter so that they do not become refugees after every flood.

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.

March 25th, 2009 KOLKATA - West Bengal forest officials Wednesday said they have arrested two people for allegedly smuggling a tiger skin from the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve (STR). 'We arrested two persons from Sundarbans late Tuesday night who were smuggling out a skin of a full-grown tiger from the forest territory,' South 24-Parganas Divisional Forest Officer S.

December 30th, 2008 KOLKATA - The West Bengal forest department Wednesday took an injured Royal Bengal tiger to Kolkata zoo after the big cat strayed into a village in Sundarbans Tuesday morning. 'The tiger was taken to Kolkata zoo today (Wednesday) and is now under medical observation of our expert team.

December 27th, 2008 KOLKATA - Three people, including a girl and a forest official, were injured when a tiger sneaked into a West Bengal village near Sundarbans Sunday morning. The man-eater was later caged by the forest department officials.