The people of coastal Bengal are well-acquainted with cyclones. Warnings of the cyclone, Dana, were given repeatedly and the wind speed was prophesied to be intense. A severe cyclone, such as Amphan, does not spare cities and towns from serious damage as many know to their cost. So preparations for an imminent cyclone would include not only evacuation of people from coastal regions and warnings given to fishermen not to venture out but also instructions to clear hotels on beaches. Dana was initially projected to make landfall somewhere close to Sagar Island. In any case, it was supposed to come ashore on the Bengal or Odisha coast. Tourists in places like Digha, Mandarmani and Tajpur were urgently asked to go home. Some did, but there were others who refused in the hope of experiencing a stormy sea.

There were still others who drove down for the special treat of watching a cyclone on the beach. In spite of constant warnings not to walk on the beach or to bathe, some tourists continued to do so, popping back to their favourite activity as soon as the police personnel disappeared. Some daring tourists built a platform on a tree to watch the storm. They had to be removed. Tourism can be of many kinds; this has been named ‘dark tourism’. A recent example is that of the watchers with recording devices during the Wayanad floods, in which there were many deaths. This time, it is as if people took leave of both their common sense and their memories of disaster in the irresistible urge to witness a cyclone at sea. The appetite was for an exciting spectacle, the desire to display their daring, which they would record on their mobile phones. Just as the habit of taking selfies in the most dangerous spots — often with tragic results — demonstrates people at their silliest, the efforts to experience a cyclone face to face on a sea beach were equally unintelligent.

It is also irresponsible. Whole families were in danger apart from the fact that the government’s extensive arrangements were ignored. It is as though adults became truant children, running away from the police, engaging in risk-taking behaviour. This was apart from the enormous expense of evacuation and relocation. One tradesman, wandering on the beach after closing his shop was pulled away by the waves. There is also a certain disrespect towards nature and its devastating force. The desire to meet the primal power of nature as entertainment remains inexplicable. Such events destroy lives of those exposed to storms and floods and render many homeless. Dark tourism reveals not just a collective lack of foresight and unintelligent bravado but also the darker sides of human nature. The belief that nothing will happen to themselves is among such tourists peculiarly myopic. Is the easy access to mobile cameras and the dissemination of exciting pictures on social media enough to explain this phenomenon?