Cylone Amphan leaves a trail of ruined houses and lives in Basirhat

BASIRHAT: Livelihoods wrecked and houses destroyed,

Basirhat subdivision

in North

24 Parganas

is a picture of misery two days after super cyclone

Amphan

rampaged its way through

West Bengal

.

At Taragunia, a humble embroidery workshop that used to earn bread for eight families in the village lies in tatters. Its owner, 32-year-old Iliyas Khan, is now left with huge loans, five mouths to feed and seven other families desperately looking up to him for resumption of their livelihood.

Like many of his friends, Iliyas too had started working in the brick kilns dotted along the Ichchamati river. But a dream to set up his embroidery workshop saw Iliyas quit, take loans and start his own unit. He was managing orders from Metiaburuz, procuring raw material and supplying the finished product. Things were good until Amphan ripped his dream to pieces.

“Each month I paid Rs 5,000 towards loan repayment. There were arrears since (Covid pandemic) lockdown was imposed but we thought it would pass. But cyclone has ruined everything,” said Ilyas.

“On Wednesday night, the roof blew off, thatched walls caved in, machines were smashed and the raw material was soiled,” Ilyas recalled as he tried to pack the few clothes he could save. To start afresh, Iliyas would have to take another loan but he has no clue how to pay it off. “There is no work in Metiaburuz now. People are not buying unless necessary. We won’t have orders any time soon,” he said.

In North 24 Parganas’ worst-hit Basirhat, thousands like Iliyas are now struggling to survive Amphan’s aftermath. Rarely can a house be seen that is not damaged. Uprooted trees and electric poles litter the subdivision. With brick kilns closed since the lockdown, many are left doing odd jobs in the fields.

“Brick kilns have a season until onset of monsoon, and we earn Rs 500 per week there. We have spent all our savings during lockdown and have nothing left to even repair our houses. We are worse than beggars now,” said 63-year-old Noor Ali Mollah as tears streaked his cheeks. His asbestos-thatched house was destroyed after a tree fell on it on Wednesday. “We went looking for plastic sheets this morning. But the municipal office does not have any left,” he said.

A few hundred meters from Mollah’s house, at

Ballabhpur

, Hasanulla Khan was trying to tie a plastic sheet on to the thatched house he had built recently. His family survived a close shave when the house crumpled in the face of the cyclone’s fury. “Ekhan asmaner niche thakte hobe. Eid tao eibhabei kete jabe (Now we will have to spend our days under the sky. Eid too will pass in this way),” Hasanulla said.

Basirhat subdivisional officer Vivek Bhasme put a figure on the number of those affected. “Nearly 1 lakh people in Basirhat subdivision have lost their homes and are now staying at relief camps in places such as Hingalgunj, Hasnabad, Deganga, Sandeshkhali and Haroa,” he said.

At least 30 embankments of the Ichhamati, Raymangal,

Bidyadhari

and Kalindi having been breached, over 700 villages are under water now.