10 dead as Cyclone Remal batters Bangladesh, India

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – The severe Cyclone Remal that made landfall on the Bangladeshi coast on Sunday night killed at least eight people in the coastal districts of Bangladesh and two persons in neighboring India, affecting over a million people and destroying thousands of households and cropland, officials said on Monday.

Due to the effect of the cyclone, heavy rainfall and storms continued to occur across the country, including the capital Dhaka. The severe cyclone, however, weakened into a cyclone and further weakened into a land-deep depression, said the Bangladeshi Met office in a media bulletin on Monday, lowering the danger signal to 3 from 10 in the coastal areas.

The Disaster Management and Relief Ministry Sunday said they had evacuated over 800,000 people from 16 coastal districts.

The local NTV broadcaster reported at least eight people were killed in the affected coastal districts.

Chattogram Divisional Commissioner Md Tofail Islam told Anadolu that they were struggling to gather information as most of the southeastern coastal districts lost electricity and mobile network connection due to the cyclone.

“Thousands of more people joined the shelter on Sunday night soon after the cyclone made landfall,” he said.

Md. Nazmul Hussein Khan, a coastal Khulna district official, told Anadolu that over 452,000 people were affected in the district alone with over 76,900 households being destroyed.

“Crops over 12,700 hectares of agricultural land and 5,575 shrimp enclosures were destroyed,” he added.

Arabinda Biswas, an official at the badly affected coastal Bagerhat district, told Anadolu that 45,000 households were destroyed. There is no electricity in most of the villages as they remain submerged, he added.

The cyclone, named Remal, made landfall at 9 p.m. local time (1500GMT) but had already caused heavy rains, storms, and high tides.

As Cyclone Remal sweeps through the coastal areas of southern and southwestern Bangladesh, 8.4 million people, including 3.2 million children, are at risk of devastating impacts, threatening their rights to health, nutrition, sanitation, and safety, UNICEF Bangladesh said on Monday.

- Effects in India

Meanwhile, officials in eastern Indian West Bengal state said two people were killed as Cyclone Remal battered the region, damaging trees and houses.

Flight operations resumed in the morning at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in the capital Kolkata after it was closed on Sunday in view of the cyclone, said the officials.

India’s National Disaster Response Force wrote on X that it is closely monitoring the “post landfall situation” in the state and its 14 rescue teams deployed across the state are “now actively engaged in restoration work with local agencies.”

*Ahmad Adil in New Delhi contributed to this report