Battle for survival on rooftops

For these starving villagers, who have lost everything in the floods which have hit nine districts of the State, it has been an agonising wait for relief and the continuing rains have only compounded their misery.

The flash floods have washed away their hutments forcing villagers to take shelter on rooftops that still remain and trees.

As the IAF copter, carrying food for stricken villagers lowers altitude, thousands of hands go up pleading for food to be dropped.

The food sacks are dropped at the only dry spot availaible in the area and a virtual scramble follows as the villagers jump into the water to reach the drop site. Not all of them are lucky. For them, the wait continues.

The scene is more or less the same in most cut off villages in the flood-ravaged districts of the State and despite the Government launching relief operations in right earnest, thousands continue to look skywards for the sight of an IAF copter 8211; their only hope for survival.

A correspondent on board an IAF chopper during a sortie, saw people huddled together in small groups on rooftops and treetops in Madanpur village of Nadia district, where all blocs have been inundated.

As the foodpacks, comprising parched rice and molasses, were being dropped, desperate men plunge into the swirling waters to grab them. In the mad scramble and the chaos, the food sacks disappear in no time.

quot;We have been given instructions by the Government. We do the dropping in specific areas. It may not be enough, but at least it will feed some of the hungry people out there,quot; explains Wing Commander Rakesh Nanda, who is coordinating the Air Force8217;s relief operations.

quot;The problem for us is that we seldom find a dry place to drop the food materials. Most of the areas are submerged in water. Wherever we find dry spots, we drop them therequot;, says Wing Commander Nanda, who himself went out on the sortie.

With the dropping mission over at Madanpur, the MI-17 copter, nicknamed Rana

by the Air Force, flies to its next destination to feed a few more hungry villagers.

The inclement weather in the last few days has hampered relief operations to some extent as the helicopters have often to wait for the rains to stop to take off.

Reopen Cal8

quot;The weather has not been kind to us. At Times though weare ready, we cannot take off because of thunderstorms and poor visibilityquot;, squadron leader Shiva says.

Squadron leader Shiva and his team, brought in for reliefoperations from the Air Force station at Dibrugarh, undertake three sorties per day carrying about 3.5 tonne of food material on each trip.

But these sorties can prove to be quite risky at Timesnot only because of the treacherous weather conditions but it involves flying at very low altitudes.

quot;We have no option but to fly low as there are very fewdry patches. We have to ensure that the food packs are dropped at the right placequot;, Shiva points out.

The scene at Badkula is even more pathetic as theoverflowing Bhagirathi river has virtually swept away the hamlets and the entire area under water. With no dry place to drop the food materials, the 8216;copter has no option but to fly away.

The cries and wails of the unfortunate villagers aredrowned by the sound of the copter as it gains height to leave them to continue their struggle for another day.

quot;We have been given instructions to drop food at aparticular place. But with the entire area under water, it becomes very difficult to identify the exact placequot;, he says.

In Tehatta, most villagers have abandoned their hutsvaged by flood waters and taken shelter on railway tracks a few kilometres away.

The copter dropped a few food sacks along the railwaytrack which triggered off a virtual stampede as the desperate men, deprived of food and water for days, fight for getting their hands on the airdropped food.

Some of the hunger-stricken children join the scramblewhile the women wait, hoping that the men will bring back something for the children at least.

Apart from food materials, the airforce 8216;copters havealso been carrying mechanised boats for the Army so that it could reach the marooned villages with relief materials.

quot;Another problem is that the villagers rush to the dryspot as soon as they see the copter. It becomes difficult for us to drop the heavy sacks as it could kill or injure themquot;, Squadron leader Shiva says.

Krishnagar town is also under waist-deep water at manyplaces and many of the residents have camped on terraces of buildings, frantically gesturing to the copter to drop food materials.

The airforce, relying on the MI-17 and MI-8 copters, hasbeen carrying out relief operations from its base in Panagarh and the Calcutta Airport.

A total of 125.2 tonnes of flood relief materials havebeen airdropped till now, besides airlifting eight army boats and 111 armymen to different parts of the flood affected districts.

Floods 8216;National disaster8217;: Basu

Calcutta, Sep 27 PTI West Bengal Chief Minister JyotiBasu today described the floods in the state as a 8216;National disaster8217; and demanded that a central team visit the devastated areas before the flood waters receded.

quot;This is a National disaster. Our only demand is that theCentre should send a team before the waters recede in the devastated areas,quot; he told reporters at Writers Buildings, the state secratariat after chairing a high-level meeting on the flood situation.

quot;Later, the Centre will obviously send a team to assessthe damages but they should send one now also,quot; he added.

Basu said the overall flood situation had improved savein Nadia where 8216;some problems still persisted8217;.

Asked whether the Centre had responded favourably to thestate government8217;s demand to declare the floods a National calamity, Basu said,quot;no8230;but the state Chief secretary Manish Gupta is trying to contact the Centre on this.quot;

To another question, he said last night8217;s high tide hadnot complicated the situation further but had affected some areas in South 24 Parganas.

Police sources said parts of Kalighat, including the 18thcentury Kali temple, Harish Chatterjee street where Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee8217;s residence is located, Alipore and Tollygunge were under knee deep water.