Sandeshkhali I

Sandeshkhali I is a community development block that forms an administrative division in Basirhat subdivision of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Sandeshkhali police station serves this block. Headquarters of this block is at Najata Hatkhali. It is located 54 km from Barasat, the district headquarters.GeographyLocationSandeshkhali is located at.Sandeshkhali I CD Block is bounded by Minakhan and Hasnabad CD Blocks in the north, Hingalganj CD Block in the east, Sandeshkhali II CD Block in the south and Bhangar II and Bhangar I CD Blocks in South 24 Parganas district in the west.AreaSandeshkhali I CD Block has an area of 181.20 km2.Physical featuresThe Sandeshkhali area is full of creeks and swamps in the deltaic region of southern Bengal. The wide Dalma and Besti rivers flow through the area.SundarbansThe Sundarbans is a flat lowland susceptible to the storm surges along the 260 km shoreline of the Bay of Bengal. The total expanse of Sundarbans is about 2.05 million hectares (8,000 square miles). Of this, only 0.42 million hectares (1,629 square miles or 10,43,000 acres) are under the reserve forests including about 0.19 million hectares covered by creeks and channels. The area is prone to natural calamities such as cyclones, thunderstorms with occasional hail and floods. There are more than 63,400 km of embankments but the floods caused by high tidal bores, often wash away much of the embankments, already weakened and broken by earlier cyclonic storms. In May 2009, the district was hit by high speed cyclone named Aila and subsequent rainfall which continued for two days. This created a disaster in 20 out of 22 blocks of the district. 10 out of 27 municipalities of the district were also severely affected.