Cyclone Nisarga: Homes and farms destroyed, Raigad locals take stock

Cyclone Nisarga has left a trail of destruction in many villages at Raigad district, as lakhs of houses have been damaged.

Cyclone Nisarga has left a trail of destruction in many villages at Raigad district, as lakhs of houses have been damaged.

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Shahabaj village, which is located 17km from Alibag, is one of them. “The roof of our house has been damaged and we have been living without electricity or water supply for four days now,” said 28-year-old Ashwini Bhagat. She and her husband Tanmay stay in Mumbai and had visited their village before the lockdown and have been there since then.

While her family has an invertor, they have been using it judiciously – only for an hour in the day to charge the phones of the nine family members and at night while having dinner. Water is also being used judiciously as supply has been affected, she said. Three banana trees in the backyard of the house of Bhagats also collapsed on Wednesday.

“Officials are saying it will take a minimum of four days for power supply to be restored. We have been finding it very difficult here,” said Tanmay.

In Thal, 8km from Alibag, Mukund Sapre has lost an acre of his farm, completely destroying huge coconut trees, banana and betel nut plantations. “It’s a huge loss for us,” says his grandson, Tejas Vaidya, a resident of Chondhi village, 10km from Alibag.

The calamity has further disrupted the lives of lakhs of locals in the district, who had already been affected owing to the Covid-19 outbreak and the national lockdown. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray visited some areas in Alibag on Friday and announced ₹100 crore for immediate relief works. The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) said that it is working on a war-footing to restore electricity.

The damages have been huge, with state district officials estimating more than 2 lakh trees and 15,000 poles to have collapsed.

“My mother said that she has not seen something this bad in her life. We could see the trees moving in circles before they collapsed. It was scary,” said 29-year-old Jaydatta Nikalje, resident of Vaibhav Nagar in Alibag. The Nikalje family lost two mango trees and a jackfruit tree in their backyard during Wednesday’s calamity.

“Mango trees have been the worst affected,” Nikalje said. The family of four did not have power supply until Friday night. “Parts of the town started getting supply only by Saturday morning. Connectivity is still an issue, especially because most of us are working from home owing to the lockdown,” said Nikalje, who works are a digital marketer.

Twenty-seven-year-old Mandar Kulkarni, another resident of Alibag, said there are several electric poles that have collapsed. “The roads are completely blocked. Mango, coconut trees, electric and other poles have fallen all over and those living near the coast have been severely affected,” Kulkarni said.

Supply for 5 lakh consumers restored in Raigad: MSEDCL

The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) said on Saturday that it has restored power supply in 5,54,144 of the 10 lakh households in eight talukas of Raigad, where electricity supply had been hit owing to the cyclone. Restoration for the remaining houses is likely to take two more days. “More than 3 lakh consumers whose supply was affected in Ratnagiri district has also been restored. Power cables in Pune district are likely to be restored by Sunday,” an official from MSEDCL said.

28,000 farmers affected in Pune district

A preliminary assessment by Pune district officials revealed that 28,496 farmers from 371 villages have been affected in the damage caused by Cyclone Nisarga. The assessment was declared in a review meeting held by state deputy chief minister and Pune guardian minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday. Almost 7,874 hectares of land has been affected in the district and 100.53 hectares of polyhouse and shade nets have also been affected owing to the storm.