Tidal surges from Cyclone Aila also left half a million people marooned by floodwaters or living in emergency shelters.

The storm reached hurricane force just as it made landfall south of the Indian metropolis of Kolkata (Calcutta). The eye of the storm then passed directly over the heart of the city of nearly 8 million people, knocking out power, killing eight people and forcing authorities to shut down the international airport.

But the main force of the storm was felt in neighboring parts of Bangladesh. High winds and storm-surge tides of up to 12 feet uprooted trees, knocked down power lines and wrecked thatched huts.

Several rivers burst their banks inside the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve, which is the world’s largest mangrove forest and home to one the world's largest wild tiger populations.

It is estimated that about 250 Bengal tigers live on the Indian portion of the Sundarbans while another 250 are believed to roam across the border in Bangladeshi.

“The entire mangrove forest was flooded by a huge tidal surge. There are some freshwater ponds which the tigers drink from, but now everything is salty,” Abani Bhusan Thakur, chief Bangladesh official for the Sundarbans, told Agence France-Presse.

He said officials were trying to figure out how to deliver fresh water to the animals until the tidal surge is flushed out to sea by the normal flow of water. One of the rare tigers swam into a village on the Indian side of the forest, where it was tranquilized until it could be released back into the wild.

In Koyra, an area close to the Sundarbans, about 100,000 people were marooned after a nearby dam burst. It was one of several dams or levees that were breached by the downpours brought on by the cyclone.

Aila weakened as it straddled the India-Bangladesh border before eventually dissipating over the foothills of the Himalayan mountains.

Cyclone Aila Track

Satellite Loop Data: CIMSS