Cyclone Amphan damages crops on 176,000 hectares in Bangladesh

Cyclone Amphan has damaged crops on 176,000 hectares of fields in Bangladesh, according to initial government estimates.

Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque revealed the data on Thursday but said the government was yet to determine the cost of the damaged crops.

The storm “could not cause that much damage” as the farmers almost completed harvesting Boro crops, he said.

“The extent of damage is relatively less than our prediction,” he said

Deputy assistant agriculture officers will collect detailed information from the farmers affected by the storm. The process will need a few more days to end, the minister said.

Amphan affected as many as 46 districts of Bangladesh but it “could not wreak havoc” on the country as government’s efforts to tackle the cyclone had begun around a week ago, he added.

The cyclone struck the Indian state of West Bengal and Odisha on Wednesday afternoon and moved into Bangladesh later in the night, devastating villages, tearing down power lines, collapsing dams and leaving large tracts of land under water.

The disaster management and relief ministry has put the death toll from Cyclone Amphan at 10. A bdnews24.com tally of data from local administrations however reveals 15 deaths caused by the storm. The death toll in India was 72.