Four days after Cyclone Tauktae’s landfall, Diu still without power; mango, coconut, banana crops flattened in Gujarat
Cyclone Tauktae has left a trail of destruction along the west coast of India. A solar plant in Diu has been badly damaged, and orchards in Saurashtra flattened. Fishers in Maharashtra are still counting their losses.
Weather experts claim that it is after 23 years that such a destructive cyclone has hit Gujarat.
Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Forty-three-year-old Vijay Laxmi, a resident of Diu, an island off the west coast of India, remembers the dark night of May 17 when the roar of sea waves hitting the shore at a cruising speed, coupled with the deafening winds of Cyclone Tauktae, tore into the otherwise calm and pleasant weather of the union territory district.
It was pitch dark as the power supply had already been cut-off, as a precautionary measure for the extremely severe cyclonic storm, which made a landfall near Saurashtra on the night of May 17.
“The electricity was cut off in Diu on May 17 itself. At around 4 pm on that day, light rainfall began but the weather got exceedingly violent by 8 pm. The winds were so strong that it seemed like cars parked in the open could be brushed away,” the 43-year-old told Gaon Connection.
“The thought of praying for my family’s safety kept me awake all night,” the mother of two said.
Laxmi is amongst the many residents of Diu, and other coastal parts of Saurashtra region in Gujarat, who, even after four days past the cyclone, are still trying to pick up pieces of their lives scattered by the storm.
At least 53 persons have reportedly died in Gujarat itself as Cyclone Tauktae left a trail of destruction along the western coast of the country including the states of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, and Gujarat.
In a related incident off the Mumbai coast, a barge of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) had sunk near the Bombay High oil rigs. An Indian Navy spokesperson stated today that 51 bodies have been recovered and 27 personnel continue to be missing while rescue operations are underway.
At least 120 persons have lost their lives in incidents related to Cyclone Tauktae across the western coast.
Weather experts claim that it is after 23 years that such a destructive cyclone has hit Gujarat. “The state was ravaged by a cyclone on June 9, 1998. It is after twenty three years that such a destructive cyclone has hit Gujarat,” Mahesh Palawat, vice president, Meteorology and Climate Change at private weather forecast website Skymet Weather, told Gaon Connection.
“More cyclones are expected to hit the state in the coming years. The reason being that the Arabian Sea is warming up rapidly due to climate change, which leads to the formation of intense cyclones,” Palawat added.
Cyclone Tauktae’s aftermath in Gujarat, Diu
Laxmi is still horror-struck. “When we came out from our houses on May 18 morning, what we saw was a sight to shudder. Trees lay uprooted, the houses on the sea shore were torn apart and fishing boats were ruined,” she recalled.
Also Read: More than four people died every day in India in 2020 due to extreme weather events – IMD report
The collector of Diu, Saloni Rai told media persons in a press briefing on May 19, “The administration is trying its best to ensure that normalcy returns at the earliest. More than five thousand trees have been uprooted and more than forty houses are destroyed. Government housing societies have suffered damages as well. Also, more than thirty boats of the fishing communities have been damaged irreparably.”
Meanwhile, on May 19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertook an aerial survey of Amreli, Gir Somnath and Bhavnagar, the Union Territory district of Diu, and other cyclone-affected areas in Gujarat.
Also Read: Uprooted by Cyclone Amphan, thousands of families in west coast of Bangladesh still displaced
He announced a relief package of Rs 10 billion for immediate relief activities. The PM also announced ex gratia compensation of Rs 200,000 each for the kins of those killed and Rs 50,000 for those injured. It is reported that at least 23 women were among the dead as the cyclone damaged hundreds of houses and roads, uprooted electric poles and trees.
Solar plant damaged in Diu
Centrally administered Diu district had earned a reputation for being self-reliant in terms of its power needs in 2018, that too by utilising solar energy. Cyclone Tauktae has badly damaged the solar plant situated in Malala village near the Gangeshwar Mahadev temple.
Built at a cost of Rs 800 million, the plant which used to generate a power of 3 megawatts has suffered a damage of more than 80 per cent. This has disrupted power supply and Diu is still plunged into darkness.
“We have brought around thirty generators from Gujarat’s Amreli and Rajkot districts to somehow arrange for the power needs of Diu. The residents are getting one to two hours of electricity per day. This has provided some relief for essential activities like refilling the domestic water tanks,” the Diu collector said.
In a video message released on May 19, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani stated that the state government is focused on restoration of communication, electricity infrastructure and repair of damaged roads.
Heavy crop damages in Gujarat
Cyclone Tauktae has flattened crops and caused heavy damages to both farming and infrastructure sectors. In Somnath district, orchards of mangoes, coconut and banana have been destroyed.
Sukh Jarkhania, secretary of Talala Mango Market, told Gaon Connection, “Within hours, mango cultivators lost business worth crores. There’s not a single mango on the trees in the orchard. We request the government to aid the cultivators to soothe their losses.”
Jaimin Patel, a farmer from Bharuch told Gaon Connection, “Somnath’s Gir has an extensive area where mangoes are cultivated. My friend from Borwar village has about 17 hectares of mango orchards. He lost an estimated twenty lakh rupees (Rs 2 million) due to the devastation by the cyclone.”
Also, in Gujarat itself, nearly 16,500 houses were reported to be damaged and more than 40,000 trees had been uprooted by the cyclonic storm.
The Gujarat government on May 19, approved a compensation of Rs 400,000 each to the kin of those who died due to accidents related to the cyclonic storm.
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who made the compensation announcement, said those injured in cyclone-triggered incidents will get Rs 50,000 each.
Cyclone Tauktae losses in Maharashtra
Fishing communities in coastal Maharashtra bore the worst brunt of Cyclone Tauktae in terms of loss of livelihoods.
Mumbai-based Kiran Koli, a senior representative from Maharashtra Machhimar Kruti Samiti, told Gaon Connection that many fishermen have been reported as missing.
“We were alerted by the weather department that a cyclone will hit Mumbai around May 15. So, we had parked our boats in safe areas. But still, boats have been destroyed as some of the boats did not have proper sheds to protect them from the cyclone. In the Madh port alone, 25-30 boats have been damaged,” he said.
Jyoti Mahar, a social activist who works for the rights of the fisherwomen who sell fishes across the Konkan coast, told Gaon Connection that the Coronavirus pandemic had already been destructive for the fishing business and two cyclones in successive years have made it worse.
Also Read: Hundreds of families await fishers, who went ‘missing’ in Ockhi cyclone, to return home
“Two consecutive cyclones within a couple of years have completely shattered the families who were dependent on the fishing business. The community was barely recovering from last year’s cyclone and the Corona, and Cyclone Tauktae has made it worse. People’s houses have broken, they are on the roads now,” she said.
Raigad district has been the worst affected in Maharashtra. Thousands of families have been displaced as the district witnessed hundreds of houses and other residential structures being damaged by the cyclone.
Also, cashew nut and mango cultivators in the Ratnagiri district have suffered heavy losses as the storm damaged the orchards.
Meanwhile, Satara district’s Mahabaleshwar is known for extensive strawberry cultivation. These orchards have faced heavy damages. “I had planted a strawberry crop on my two hectares of land. Two days of heavy rainfall has ruined it all. I have suffered a loss of about fifty thousand rupees,” 30-year-old Shrikant Pawar, a farmer from Mahabaleshwar’s Kasgaon area told Gaon Connection.
Edited by Pratyaksh Srivastava
With inputs from Shirish Khare