Cyclone and Storm Surge - Iczmpwb.org

4.5
Table 1: Frequency and return period of severe cyclones and cyclones on the
districts of West Bengal.
District Name
Severe Cyclones
Cyclones
Number Return Number Return Period
Period
Midnapore 3 38 32 4
North 24 Pargana 0 - 11 10
South 24 Pargana 12 10 38 3
Haora 0 - 5 23
Nadia 0 - 3 38
Bankura 0 - 9 13
Hoogle 0 - 4 28
Bardhaman 0 - 4 28
Purulia 0 - 4 28
The above table clearly shows that South 24 Pargana is the most vulnerable district with a severe
cyclone in every ten years and a cyclone in very three years. It is followed by Midnapore with a
cyclone in every four years and a severe cyclone in every 38 years. Rest of the districts is affected by
few cyclones only with return period more than 20 years. It can also be mentioned here that the
coastal area of South 24 Pargana is the low laying delta region and may results high storm surge and
coastal inundation leading to be higher vulnerability.
4.4. Block-wise distribution
West Bengal has two districts touching the Bay of Bengal; these are South 24 Pargana & East
Midnapore. And as seen in the previous section, these two districts are most vulnerable and hence,
need to be discussed further in details. Table-2 shows the coastal blocks with number of cyclones /
severe cyclones causing landfall. This shows that 12 among 15 severe cyclones and 38 among 56
cyclones causes landfall in South 24 Pargana. The return periods of the cyclones / severe cyclones
are show in the Table-3. These two tables give an overview of landfall of these storms on the West
Bengal coastline. Total 71 cyclonic storms crossed West Bengal during last 114 years, among these
26 crossed the coast-line at Gosaba. Figure 4 shows the coastal blocks of South 24 Pargana and
number of cyclones and severe cyclones crossing these blocks. This also clearly indicated Gosaba is
the most affected block in this district.