Sanatan Gayen is wondering how he will fund the education of two siblings after his betel leaf farm was destroyed by Cyclone Amphan last week.

The 27-year-old has been trying to calculate the total loss from the damage to his crops. But till Tuesday, the figure eluded him.

“Betel leaf farming has been the source of our livelihood for generations. It used to give us a steady income of Rs 20,000 per month. The lockdown had hit our business, but Amphan just ruined us. Now, we need at least Rs 1.5 lakh to rebuild the shed on which the betel leaves grow,” said Gayen.

Gayen, a graduate, supports his two siblings who are undergraduate students. He said after setting up sheds, betel vines would take at least three months to grow.

“First, we need money to reconstruct boroj (shed) and then, we have to wait for three months for the vines to mature. Betel leaves are very sensitive and get damaged easily,” he said.

Ashok Nandi of Sagar in South 24-Parganas owns a field where he and his family have been cultivating betel leaves for years.

“I don’t know how my family will survive. I took good care of my crop to make it survive the lockdown. Amphan has finished what I had so carefully protected,” Nandi said.

Like Gayen and Nandi, at least two lakh betel leaf farmers in South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore are facing the same crisis after Amphan destroyed their plants completely.

A large number of families in at least 10 blocks of South 24-Parganas like Namkhana, Patharpratima, Kakdwip, Gosaba and Basanti depend on betel leaves.

In East Midnapore, betel leaves are cultivated in Tamluk, Nandakumar, Mahishadal and Ramnagar.

In South 24-Parganas, betel leaves cultivated on 2,477 hectares of land were destroyed and the loss calculated by the district’s horticulture department is around Rs 2,775 crore.

The corresponding loss in East Midnapore is around Rs 1,000 crore as the plant has faced partial damage in the district. The plant is cultivated on 5,000 hectares in the district.

“Betel leaves have been fully or partially damaged in around 5,000 hectares,” said Mrinal Kanti Bera, an assistant director of Agriculture (plant division) in Tamluk, said.

The betel leaves from the two districts are sent to states such as Assam and Uttar Pradesh and exported to countries like Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.

“We used to export around 500 tonnes of betel leaves every week from our market in Tamluk. After the lockdown was announced, the business dropped. Now, we can’t get the leaves till the farmers resume production,” said Sukanta Adak, secretary of the district’s Betel Leaf Traders’ Association.

After calculating the loss, the district administrations planned to help farmers reconstruct their sheds under government schemes and supply labourers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Administrative officials in South 24-Parganas said they had appealed to the state government to launch a scheme to support the betel leaf farmers.

“Amphan has left betel leaf farmers in huge loss in our district. We have already requested the government to grant funds for them. We will help them rebuild their sheds under the MGNREGA,” said P. Ulaganathan, the district magistrate of South 24-Parganas.

Officials in South 24-Parganas said the main threat was the flow of salty water from the breached river embankments that needed to be stopped before the restoration of the sheds.