Reconstructing the great Benga cyclone of 1737

Abstract

Having established that the figure of 300,000 quoted as the human casualty in the legendary south of 1737 was a implant (Sen Sarma 1994) and the simultaneous earthquake a myth (Sen Sarma 1993, Bilham, 1994) it was necessary to freshly evaluate that storm as to its severity and destructive impact.

The strength of0 storm was assessed  by using  the reported surge of 40 ft as the output  in Ghosh’s (1977)  surge computing scheme and arriving  at the required input    p. The probable track of the storm was reconstructed with the help of an analogue. The likely area inundated by 'significant' surge was demarcated by analogy with 1970 Bangladesh storm (Frank and Husain 1971). The affected population of that area was estimated from the decadal figures for Bengal area going backward from recent times to 1801, Finally, the number of lives lost was inferred from the available data on the mortality ratio in the Andhra cyclone of 1977.

It is estimated that the cyclone of 17.37 was a T 7 storm and had taken 35,000 lives (the error margin being 10,000 on either side of that figure).