The most saddening sights were visible in places such as Kailasagiri, Waltair, Ukkunagaram and the Andhra University campus that were earlier the most prominent lung spaces of Vizag. On Monday, however, the once tall trees were bent and broken, unable to bear the onslaught of Hudhud. The Kambalakonda Reserve Forest too had half its trees missing on Monday.
In fact, almost all of the 50 lakh trees covering over 40% of the 3,600 hectares of Ukkunagaram or VSP Steel Township were found damaged. A top official of a PSU said that most campuses in Vizag were rich in green cover and the overall loss of flora and fauna was worse than the infrastructure damage they suffered.
The erstwhile lush green corridors running along the two sides of National Highway 5 were no different. Pictures posted across social networking sites by commuters revealed the large-scale devastation that this stretch faced on Sunday. In place of trees, what remained were only heaps of fallen branches and leaves.
"We will have to take up at least 50% re-plantation on the university campus in the near-term. But it will be an uphill task as the groundwater levels are already low. It will take us another 10 years to replant all the trees on campus," Andhra University registrar, K Ramamohana Rao, said. The campus, spread over 700 acres, is presently a picture of havoc and is strewn with broken branches, much like the sprawling 1,000 acre Kailasagiri area.
"Watching the sky on Sunday was heart-breaking. Dead bodies of our feathered friends were seen flying all around. Given that many trees were blown away along with their nests, these little creatures clearly had no place to shield themselves from the cyclone's fury," said Santosh Paul, a resident of Beach Road.
Though some crows and kites were seen making a comeback on Monday, their numbers were limited to just a handful. If the accounts of some residents are to be believed, over 30,000 birds are believed to have died in the coastal city in less than 24 hours. Though the animals housed in Vizag's Indira Gandhi Zoological Park, fortunately, managed to brave the storm, the expansive premises have lost all its green cover.
Angry sea eats into beaches
If the raging storm did not spare the birds, the angry waves unleashed all its wrath on Vizag's most prized possession — its beaches. The sea on Monday turned into a dirty shade of brown and the once-pristine shores were equally muddy. According to some witnesses, the beaches were also reduced to half their original width. "The wall between the beach and the road lay broken and damaged in many places, thus allowing the sand to pile up on the road," recounted a resident, adding, "From the sight of the beaches now, it is tough to believe that they, until recently, kept Vizag's tourism sector alive."
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