The Indian government has deployed soldiers to help with rescue and relief efforts after Cyclone Amphan hit the country’s eastern coast last week.
More than 20 rivers have breached their banks and seawater is seeping into farmlands in the Sundarbans mangroves region – a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Al Jazeera’s Priyanka Gupta reports.
In meteorology, a cyclone is a large scale air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure. Cyclones are characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate about a zone of low pressure and typically bring winds, rain, high waves and storm surges to the areas they pass.
In the Atlantic and the northeastern Pacific oceans, a tropical cyclone is generally referred to as a hurricane (from the name of the ancient Central American deity of wind, Huracan), in the Indian and south Pacific oceans it is called a cyclone, and in the northwestern Pacific it is called a typhoon.
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the second-most populous country, the seventh-largest country by land area, and the most populous democracy in the world. New Delhi is the capital.
It has an exceptionally diverse population, with Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and other religions speaking over 21 recognised languages.