114 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ ত্রয়োদশ খন্ড 8. It is now possible to assess what forms the needs of the people will take, both as a result of the cyclone and military action taken by the army : (a) Food supplies will have been destroyed and/or delayed for all parts of the country. Once the rains commence, it will be almost impossible to ship substantial or significant quantities of more food supplies into the cyclone affected areas. Estimating the Chittagong dock-side storage capacity to be 150,000 tons (or approximately 15,000,000 man months) and knowing that this was full in the middle of March, then it could be reasonably guessed that at that time there was sufficient supplementary food-grains available to carry the whole country for up to two months, approximately. Unknown amount of damage was inflicted on the dock side area, and little more grain has been imported since that time (18/3/71). Further, the harvesting of the secondary rice crop of the year (the winter, irrigated "boro" crop) should be commencing in April, and will probably not be fully harvested as it depends on locally imported casual labor which will not be generally available. (b) Communications-the following summarizes what can be anticipated: vehicles-many destroyed or damaged roads, bridges-many destroyed or damaged rail lines and rolling stock-cut in many places and stock damaged, destroyed, river boats-some have been destroyed, many probably damaged, and river trade has not recovered from the cyclone air-probably non-existent. (c) Future agricultural production-the import of oxen into the affected areas will have been stopped, and the illegal import from India will also have largely ceased. Further, many will doubtless be slaughtered for army food supplies, if necessary. Supplies of seeds will be endangered (utilized for food) and fertilizer supplies will be interrupted throughout the country) (d) Farming mechanization-the time available for cultivation will have been appreciable reduced, and fuel supplies will be in extremely short supply. (Consequently, the spraying of non-polluting week killer on paddy fields to permit planting of the crop with a minimum of tillage or no tillage at all, could then be considered as a more practicable, emergency proposition, though still an extremely expensive one, costing nearly £ 300 per 100 acres.) (e) Medical-it can be assumed that medical facilities and supplies will have been largely commandeered by the army and there will be an appreciable need for genuine First Aid medical relief Work in a way that never really existed after the cyclone. (f) Buildings and housing-the season is already so far advanced that not much more permanent building materials could have been shipped into the cyclone affected areas, however, it is likely that some of the material stockpiled and awaiting internal shopment will have been dispersed or destroyed and there will be a need for planning general support for a building programme for all community service buildings to be erected from autumn 1971 onwards.
