Cyclone leaves communities devastated in India, Bangladesh

By Nita Bhalla

NEW DELHI (Reuters AlertNet) - Millions of people in India and Bangladesh have been temporarily displaced and are in desperate need of water, food and adequate shelter after a severe tropical storm struck the region, aid workers and officials said.

Bangladesh's low-lying coastal belt and parts of eastern India were hit on Monday by Cyclone Aila which was accompanied by tidal surges and flooding.

Packing winds of up to 100 kph, the storm has killed at least 210 people and injured over 6,400 in both countries.

While hundreds of thousands of residents were evacuated to cyclone shelters, schools, colleges and other buildings, the high winds and floods destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, ravaged crops, killed livestock and damaged roads and bridges.

The Bangladeshi government says almost four million people have been affected by the disaster, with at least 100 dead and hundreds more still missing.

While in India's West Bengal state, authorities say that nearly 2.3 million people have been affected.

One million are believed to be displaced in India's Sundarban islands, a network of low-lying islands in the Bay of Bengal which is already threatened by climate change.

"The situation is particularly bad in the Sundarbans as it was directly in the path of the cyclone," said Manab Ray, Save the Children India's programme manager in West Bengal.