16 Friday International Friday, May 28, 2021 Latest kills nine, thousands homeless 300,000 homes destroyed, thousands of people still marooned

DIGHA, India: Thousands of people were minister said more than homeless yesterday after a cyclone battered 300,000 homes were destroyed. COVID-ravaged India and neighboring “The water level in the sea and rivers started , killing nine people including four to swell to over three to four meters (nine to 12 children. feet) above the normal level and breached em- are a regular menace in the north- bankments in 135 places,” Banerjee said. “Thou- ern Indian Ocean but many scientists say they sands of people are still marooned. We have set are becoming more frequent and severe as cli- up 14,000 cyclone centers to provide shelter to mate change warms sea temperatures. Barely a the homeless,” she said. Low-lying areas of state week after claimed at least 155 capital were also flooded after the lives in western India, Cyclone Yaas forced the Hooghly river rose. disaster man- evacuation of more than 1.5 million people in the agement minister Javed Ahmed Khan told AFP eastern states of West Bengal and . The that rescue efforts were being “complicated” by storm hit on Wednesday with torrential rain and villagers refusing to leave their homes because howling winds gusting up to 155 kilometers (96 of fears about coronavirus. miles) an hour, equivalent to a category two hur- “Water is everywhere. The situation is very ricane. Waves the size of double-decker buses grim,” Arjun Manna, a resident of Kakdwip in the pounded the shore and swamped towns and vil- Sunderbans delta and nature reserve area, told lages along the coastline, exacerbated by a AFP by phone. “The devastation is huge. Most higher-than-normal tide because of a full moon. hotels and markets are still inundated. The sea is Prabir Maity, a resident of a village close to still roaring,” Diprodas Chatterjee from the the sea, told AFP: “I have lost my home, every- Hoteliers’ Association in the seaside town of KOLKATA: Waves lash over onto a damaged shoreline after Cyclone Yaas hit India’s eastern coast in the thing.” Two people died in West Bengal, two in told AFP. “Employees who stayed back , at a beach in Shankarpur, some 180 km from Kolkata yesterday. — AFP Odisha and five in neighboring Bangladesh, of- are telling a grim story,” he said. ficials said. Milan Mondal, a senior forest official, told cued by forest officials,” he said. “We are afraid were also damaged during the storm, but In southern areas of Bangladesh, although AFP that the high waves had also swamped a that many crocodiles have left the breeding cen- telecommunication networks were not affected, not in Yaas’s direct path, the sea smashed crocodile breeding centre and tiger reserve ter.” In Odisha hundreds of trees were uprooted, he added. Yaas has since moved inland towards through water defenses and inundated thou- project area in the Sunderbans. some bringing down power lines, relief official the state of , easing to a deep depres- sands of homes, officials said. West Bengal chief “At least five deer and a wild boar were res- Pradeep Kumar Jena said. Some thatched homes sion but bringing heavy rains. —AFP

Frantic bid to stem Kids’ bid to block ship fire Australian mine as oil spill fears mount scores big victory

COLOMBO: International salvage experts and Indian vessels SYDNEY: Teenagers suing to block expansion of an Aus- yesterday joined a desperate bid to extinguish a huge blaze on a tralian coal mine scored a “landmark” victory yesterday, container ship off the Sri Lankan coast as fears grow that the ves- with a judge agreeing the project would cause them cli- sel could cause a devastating oil spill. Strong Indian Ocean winds mate-related harm. A group of eight high-schoolers-backed have hampered efforts to douse an inferno on the Singapore-reg- by an activist octogenarian nun-brought a class action istered X-Press Pearl that has now been burning for eight days. against Australia’s pro-coal conservative government over Three Indian coastguard vessels bolstered the firefighting op- a planned mine extension near Sydney. eration while the owners said they have called in experts from While a federal judge rejected the group’s calls for an Dutch salvage specialists SMIT to help. A Sri Lankan military hel- injunction to stop the project outright, he ruled the govern- COLOMBO: Sri Lankan Navy soldiers work to remove debris icopter on Wednesday dropped fire retardant chemicals on the ment must take into account the damage the project would washed ashore from the Singapore-registered container ship MV 186 metre (610 feet) long ship as the blaze spread. do to the group’s health, wealth and wellbeing. “The minister X-Press Pearl, which has been burning for the eighth consecutive The X-Press Pearl was carrying nearly 1,500 containers, in- has a duty to take reasonable care to avoid causing per- day in the sea off Sri Lanka’s Colombo Harbor, on a beach in cluding 25 tons of nitric acid, when the fire broke out close to sonal injury to the children when deciding... to approve or Colombo yesterday. — AFP Colombo port. Sri Lanka’s Marine Environment Protection Au- not approve the extension project,” Justice Mordy thority (MEPA) now fears the vessel could break up and spew oil Bromberg found. Legal experts said the ruling was signifi- onto coastal beaches. 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the capital. “Given the very cant because it was the first time a court had accepted ex- “The fire is covering the length of the vessel. The hull may not rough seas and the heavy monsoon winds, it is not possible to lay pert testimony about the vast potential impact of climate be stable for us to tow the ship away from our waters,” MEPA booms around the ship to contain a spill,” she said. change on younger generations and the government’s duty chairman Dharshani Lahandapura said. The vessel, now anchored, “Our best option is to clean the beach and we suspect any to consider that impact in weighing new fossil fuel projects. is carrying 278 tons of bunker oil and 50 tons of marine gasoil, clearing operation will take a few weeks, if not months.” The fire In the ruling, Bromberg accepted harrowing expert ev- she said. is believed to have started when a container of nitric acid began idence of a grim future on a warming planet. It was, he said, to leak, she said, and authorities are investigating reports that the “what might fairly be described as the greatest inter-gen- Acid fire crew knew about the issue before entering Sri Lankan waters. “If erational injustice ever inflicted by one generation of hu- Lahandapura said a large quantity of oil now threatened to the problem was addressed at that time, we wouldn’t be having mans upon the next.” —AFP leak and hit the nearby tourist and fishing region of Negombo, to deal with this crisis,” the MEPA chief said. — AFP