This is the South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. The majority of the Indian part of Sundarbans is located here. But in recent times South 24 Parganas is devastated by more cyclones than any other district of India. Over the last year, 10 cyclonic disturbances have swept the country and two of them (Cyclone Yaas and Jawad) were in the Sunderbans. Sunderbans has now become the cyclone capital of India.
According to the recently released Climate hazards and vulnerability Atlas of India by the India Meteorological Department, Pune, the return period of cyclonic storms in South 24 Parganas was 1.67 years on a scale of 1.5 to 60 years. The Shorter return periods indicate more frequent cyclones. To put it in context, India’s return period for severe storms is 2.61 years. The researchers studied cyclonic storms of the past 60 years, especially those passing within 50 nautical miles or 90 kilometres off the coastal districts.
The studies showed that coastal districts of Kendrapara in Orissa, Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, Purba Medinipur in Bengal are also extremely vulnerable to cyclones. The number of cyclone landfalls was also the highest in South 24 Paraganas — 13 from 1961-2020 — followed by Nellore and Nagapattinam.
As a region, South Bengal was ravaged by 9 severe cyclones during the period, the highest in the country. Srikakulam and Ganjam districts followed with 6 and 5 intense cyclonic storms respectively. What stands out is that around 70 per cent of the cyclones were of severe categories in the Sundarbans area. The median landfall location has also shifted eastward from northern Odisha toward the Sundarban area. These findings are in sync with the developments during the last three years when Sunderbans was impacted by one major cyclone after another — from Bulbul in 2019, Amphan in 2020, Yaas and Jawad in 2021. Around 4 per cent of the districts and 7 per cent of the population in India are highly vulnerable to cyclones. Most of the coastal districts of the east coast are highly vulnerable to cyclones. As climate change is forcing more and more extreme weather events, life in Sunderbans is going to get more challenging in the coming years.
