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'Bhubaneswar will never be the same again'

M I Khan in Bhubaneswar

Almost a week after the super cyclone hit Orissa, the capital city of Bhubaneswar wears a devastated look. Roads are strewn with uprooted trees, markets are closed and schools and offices are reporting thin attendance.

In some ways it resembles a war zone, with army helicopters flying over the city ferrying food and medicines to rural areas and army personnel and relief workers arriving from other states to take up relief work.

With the supply of essentials into the city almost nil in the past one week, prices have begun rising. Vegetables, cooking oil and milk are in short supply.

Till last Thursday, when the cyclone struck, the city was proud of its green cover. No longer. Experts say the city's green lungs have suffered a loss that would be hard to make up for. "We used to live a very normal life in a pollution free environment thanks to the city's green cover. All that will change now,'' said Jatin Das of Kharvel Nagar.

Others like Anali Mitra, a retired professor who has lived in city for 40 years, feel that the city will never be the same again. ''Several trees, some of them over 50 years old, have been lost. These were part of the city's landscape. All that remains of them are ugly stumps,'' he said.

Green activist Banke Behary Das obviously is a worried man today. "The city's green cover was part of its unique lifestyle. The killer storm has destroyed everything,'' he said.

But in all this confusion and devastation there are still a few who are trying to have a spot of fun. Bhubaneswar is agog with rumours ranging from the sacking of the Congress government led by Giridhar Gamang to the appointment of Sushma Swaraj as a governor.

"There is no powere supply so televisions are off and newspaper publishing has come to a grinding halt. Rumours mongers are filling in this vacuum,'' said a resident.

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