A day before tropical cyclonic storm Nisarga was expected to make landfall just south of Mumbai bringing with it high speed winds and very heavy rainfall, Maharashtra and Gujarat began evacuating thousands of residents of coastal districts, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured the chief ministers of both states on Tuesday of help from the Centre.
The severe cyclonic storm with an expected wind speed ranging from 100-110 kmph (gusting to 120 kmph) is likely to make landfall near Alibag in Raigad district on Wednesday afternoon according to a forecast by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). This comes at a time when both states are already reeling under a high caseload of Covid-19 infections — while Maharashtra recorded 72,300 cases, Gujarat recorded 17,632 cases as on June 2 — raising concerns over the strain it would place on their healthcare infrastructure and municipal resources.
While Gujarat had started moving 13,000 people from coastal areas of Surat, Navsari, Valsad, and Bharuch in South Gujarat, besides Daman, and Amreli and Bhavnagar districts in Saurashtra region, Maharashtra had evacuated at least 7,600 people from Palghar, Ratangari and Sindhudurg till Tuesday evening. Another 21,000 are expected to be moved from Palghar and at least 35000 residents of Raigad — where the cyclone is expected to make landfall — will be evacuated, as well. The National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) has deployed 40 teams in Maharashtra, Gujarat and the UT. Five additional NDRF teams from Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh will be airlifted and deployed in Mumbai by Wednesday morning, a senior commander from NDRF said. Officials said the Indian Coast Guard ships, aircraft and on-shore stations are relaying warnings about the impending adverse weather to marine vessels and fishermen. State disaster relief teams have also been activated.
According to the IMD, the cyclonic storm is likely to have an impact on Mumbai, Thane and other coastal districts of Maharashtra like Raigad and Palghar. It may hit Valsad, Navsari, Surat, Bhavnagar and Bharuch districts of Gujarat and Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. An alert has been issued for Mumbai city which is already prone to inundation.
{{/usCountry}}According to the IMD, the cyclonic storm is likely to have an impact on Mumbai, Thane and other coastal districts of Maharashtra like Raigad and Palghar. It may hit Valsad, Navsari, Surat, Bhavnagar and Bharuch districts of Gujarat and Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. An alert has been issued for Mumbai city which is already prone to inundation.
{{/usCountry}}However officials of both states said that care was being taken to ensure separation of Covid-19 positive cases from others during the evacuation efforts. Anupam Srivastava, NDRF Maharashtra commandant, said each jawan has been provided with a rescuer Covid kit, which includes a hand wash, soap, gloves, face masks and shields. They have also been provided with two biological suits, one which can be disposed of and one which can be washed. “It will be a difficult rescue operation, but we are well-prepared,” Srivastava said.
Pankaj Kumar, additional chief secretary (ACS), revenue of Gujarat said that rescue teams were equipped with masks, PPE kits and hand sanitisers. The shelter homes where the evacuees will stay have been sanitized and social distancing norms will be enforced, Kumar added. “We will ensure that power cut doesn’t affect functioning of COVID19 hospitals. The district administrations have been asked to prepare a list of Covid patients and arrange temporary shelter homes and Covid hospitals in nearby schools and colleges,” Kumar said.
On Tuesday, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray asked citizens to not step out of their houses on Wednesday and Thursday, and ordered establishments, which had opened in the past few days after the lockdown, to stay shut for the following two days.
Of the seven districts likely to be affected in Maharashtra, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri have more tehsils at the elevation of just 5 to 15 m above sea level, putting them at greater risk of inundation in the event of very heavy rainfall as predicted. “Guhagar, Dapoli, Mandangad are some of the tehsils expected to be hit most by the cyclone. We have one team of NDRF deployed in the district. We have identified the schools, colleges for the evacuation and have an adequate stock of food grain and other essential commodities,” a district official, who chose to remain anonymous as he is not authorized to speak to the media, said. Most of the district collectors (DC) have imposed curfew in the tehsils expected to be hit of cyclone over next three days.
Ratnagiri DC Laxminarayan Mishra said that additional arrangements are being made to separate Covid-19 positive people as well as those under quarantine, during the evacuation.
Ganesh Kashnath Lohar, 30, a fisherman who resides 500-metres from the coast close to Mandwa jetty in Alibag was surprised to see four boats and 13 officials of the Maharashra Maritime Board, district collector’s office and NDRF on Tuesday, as they assessed the level of storm surge in the region. “We had only heard about devastating impacts that cyclones had caused in south Konkan but now, based on warnings issued by district officials, we are expecting to witness it first hand,” said Lohar. “My daughter is frightened as if a monster from the sea is going to appear but we have calmed her down telling her it’s just loud thunder and rain. But we ourselves don’t know what to expect after hearing stories from friends how fishermen were affected off the coast of Bengal (during Cyclone Amphan).”
Lohar lives with his wife, daughter and mother in a one-room pucca house will not be evacuated — and he is grateful for that. “First it was the lockdown that restricted fishing for almost the entire month of March, and then when we began fishing for just over a month, now a cyclone is coming. There have been a lot of losses for us this year.”
With Jaykishan Sharma