The Hindu : National : Tsunami struck Bengal in 1874

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Thursday, Dec 30, 2004

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Tsunami struck Bengal in 1874

By Malabika Bhattacharya

KOLKATA, DEC. 29. A tsunami struck areas adjacent to the Sunderbans in South Bengal (now Bhola district in Bangladesh) in May 1874, killing at least 12 lakh people, according to a former Director-General of the Meteorological Department, Dr. Mihir Guha. He told The Hindu today that since there was no centre to study meteorology at that point in time, the disaster went unrecorded.

According to him, the tsunami struck when Bhola experienced an earthquake. It was followed by great tidal waves in the Bay of Bengal.

The twain played havoc in vast areas of the Sunderbans, 24-Parganas, parts of Midnapore, Barishal, Khulna and Bhola (the last three now in Bangladesh). The death toll reached 12 lakhs. Even Kolkata felt its impact, Dr. Guha says. British meteorologists rushed to the disaster-struck areas and collected valuable information. It was the same year that the meteorological centre in Alipore in Kolkata was set up.

He said that the latest tsunami could have been disastrous for Bengal had the quake been combined with high tide. "The 17 low-lying islands of the Sunderbans would have been hard hit if the tide here was high. At least 12 lakh people could have been wiped out," he said.

Bengal, he said, had experienced a series of earthquakes in recent times but not powerful ones. Since 1991, Bankura, Midnapore, Murshidabad and 24-Parganas felt the tremors but they had always been "slight to moderate."

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