After lockdown, cyclone Amphan hits book traders hard; hundreds of books destroyed

impact of Cyclone Amphan was felt throughout city, but at oldest book market of eastern India, if t entire country, hundreds of books damd in last week’s cyclone could be seen on pavements and tram tracks in Kolkata’s iconic College Street area. uprooted tree branches beside cable wires and dozens of book lay a testament to storm’s impact.

Sanat Kumar Saha, a 58-year-old book vendor stated that he next morning when he arrived, he saw majority of his books, swimming in water within his stall.

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"I have a family of 7. This shop is my only source of income. We have seen floods before, never lockdown. loss can't be calculated. next morning when I came from Belghoria, all se books were wet in water", lamented Saha.

It all started with coronavirus-triggered lockdown, n cyclone down six days ago leaving thousands of bookshops in area battered.

A man selling books for past 50 years in market told us that floods in 1978 were devastating but thing like current one.

"I had seen floods in 1978, never seen lockdown, this is more devastating. How do I calculate losses, even at lows it will be 25-30k worth of loses" said Suren Mallick, who is running his book store for past 50 years. Mallick went on to state that when he came on day after storm, most shops were closed.

" ones(wet books) we see on streets are destroyed, y cant be returned or used. When next education cycle will start, n something good will happen. lockdown was bad, but cyclone made it worse" said a disheartened Suren Mallick, who has seen it all in iconic College Street corridor.

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