Twisted facts cover up tornado trail

Survivors still can’t believe what they saw and suffered. But the remains of the tornado’s day lay strewn over a much larger area than was known yesterday-several thousand mud huts razed to the ground, trees uprooted, humans andcattle tossed around like dead leaves. What stands erect only heightens the gloom. Like the brick-built club room at Satra village in Danton block, which was used to keep the bodies collected in the area. Or the two temples in the same village which were left unscathed by the gale and where now the survivors gathered to mourn their dead.

Eyewitness accounts read like horror stories. It was close to three in the afternoon. At Chak Islampur village, Santhal farm labourers were busy harvesting the potato crop. First, it was like the roar of an airplane flying low. As they looked up to the skies, they saw something like a fireball in the middle of a thick black cloud.

The cloud broke into the twister that lasted just about two minutes. Before they knew what it was, nine of the farmers were thrown up from the fields and tossed at some distance. Such was the ferocity of the gale that the farmers were not only struck dead but their bodies were torn apart. Today, as rescuers searched the rubble of huts, theyoften came upon badly mutilated bodies, some almost beyond recognition. They were joined by anxious relatives or neighbours who counted about 300 missing. If that shows how much confusion still hung over the tragedy sites, it was known today that the gale hit not only Danton, but also neighbouring Egra and Mohanpur blocks. Not six, as preliminary reports yesterday said, but as many as 15 villages felt nature’s scourge.

Just as the survivors struggled in the camps opened in schools and other buildings in neighbouring villages out of the gale’s path, hordes of politicos descended on the hapless villagers, jostling for their own space. There were four West Bengal Ministers, Mamata Banerjee with Union Agriculture Minister, Sompal, a Congress team led by former PCC president Somen Mitra. And, true to form, they sought their campaign space over the relief operations. The State Government yesterday sanctioned Rs 1 crore for relief and announced today ex gratia payment of Rs 20,000 to each victim’sfamily.

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