Manas Dasgupta
AHMEDABAD, May 19: Contrary to the initial claims of the state government, Gujarat has suffered heavy damages both in terms of human lives and property in the Tauktae cyclone that passed over the state on Tuesday after hitting the coast near Diu at a very high velocity of about 185 kilometres per hour.
While the initial reports quoted by the chief minister Vijay Rupani on Tuesday said only three persons were killed in the cyclone-related incidents, official sources on Wednesday confirmed at least 47 deaths and do not rule out the possibility of the toll further going up as the relief and rescue teams progressed to further cyclone-hit interior areas in the state.
Tauktae that has weakened into a depression and lay centred over south Rajasthan and adjoining Gujarat region on Wednesday morning, has left on its trail very heavy damages to 12 districts in the state besides causing heavy to very heavy rainfall in almost all over the state badly hitting the standing crops, heavy losses to the delicious “kesar” mango and coconut crops and other fruits and vegetable products.
The chief minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday made an aerial survey of the cyclone-devastated districts in the Saurashtra region and later held a meeting with the chief minister Vijay Rupani and senior officials assuring the government of his home state all necessary central assistance to overcome the situation.
Official sources said of the 47 deaths, Amreli, the worst-hit district, alone accounted for 15 deaths while eight each were killed in Bhavnagar and Gir-Somnath districts, five were killed in Ahmedabad, two in Kheda and one each in Anand, Vadodara, Surat, Valsad, Rajkot, Navsari and the Panchamahals districts. Of the total deaths, 24 died in wall collapse, six died due to tree falling, five each for house collapse and electrocution, four due to roof collapse and one due to tower collapse, the sources said.
Tauktae had also caused destruction or damages to over 33,000 houses, hutments and “kutcha” shelters, uprooted more than 69,500 electric poles and flattened over 40,000 trees besides causing power outage to over 6,000 villages and caused blockades of about 700 roads and highways. The cyclone also caused temporary disruption in the services to patients in over 120 of the 425 Covid designated hospitals in the affected districts but there was no report so far of any death of patients due to cyclone-related disruptions since the government in advance had kept adequate stock of medical oxygen and kept the generator sets stand-by in the event of disruption of power supply.
The cyclonic storm adversely affected nearly four crore population in 21 districts where normal life was disrupted due to incessant heavy to very heavy rainfall though the main brunt was borne by the four coastal districts of Gir-Somnath, Junagadh, Amreli and Bhavnagar which received more than 150 to 175 m.m. rainfall in a day. The downpour in some of the areas was so heavy that several small dams in the Saurashtra region started overflowing in just a day’s rainfall.
Initial reports said nearly 90 per cent of the standing crops in the Saurashtra region had been destroyed or badly damaged with the biggest sufferers being the farmers in Junagadh, Gir-Somnath, Amreli, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Dwarka, Porbandar and Rajkot districts. Nearly-ripened “kesar” mangoes have been badly damaged and official sources admitted that more than 50 per cent of the mango crop had been lost in the cyclone.
A worried prime minister reached Bhavnagar from Delhi in the afternoon from where he took a helicopter to move around the cyclone-ravaged coastal districts, particularly the worst-hit Una, Jafrabad, Mahuva and Diu areas.
The cyclone, which made landfall between the union territory of Diu and Una town of Gir-Somnath district on Monday night, then moved across Saurashtra, central and north Gujarat before crossing into Rajasthan.
Meanwhile, 51 ONGC workers are still missing after a barge that was carrying 261 people sank 35 nautical miles off the Mumbai coast on Monday as the cyclone swept past. The Navy, which is leading the search and rescue operation, has recovered 22 bodies from the sunken barge.
A video tweeted by the Defence PRO (Mumbai) on Wednesday afternoon showed INS Kochi sailing into the city’s harbour this morning with 188 rescued persons from barge P-305. INS Kolkata also returned to Mumbai harbour today, carrying others who were rescued.
“INS Kochi entering Mumbai harbour today morning along with rescued personnel from Barge P305. Naval ships Teg, Betwa and Beas, as well as P8I aircraft and Sea King helicopters are continuing with search & rescue ops,” the PRO Defence account tweeted.
Modi during his Gujarat visit also spoke to some senior officials to take stock of the operations to rescue people from the ONGC barge.
“It was a horrific situation on the barge. I had not thought I would survive. But I swam in the waters for seven to eight hours with the determination to stay alive and was rescued by the Navy,” Manoj Gite, 19, one of those on board P-305, said.
Barge P-305 and two others – Gal Constructor and Support Station-3 – were deployed by engineering firm Afcons for its ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) contract.
All 137 people on board Gal Constructor, which ran aground during the storm, were rescued Tuesday, the Coast Guard said.
201 were on board Support-Station 3, which was drifting northwest in the Mumbai High oilfield.
Efforts are also ongoing to rescue 101 people on board ONGC’s oil drilling ship Sagar Bhushan, which lost its anchors in the storm and began to drift north.
Another rescue effort involves Greatship Aditi – an offshore supply/tug that is struggling 15-20 nautical miles southeast off Gujarat’s Pipavav. INS Talwar is in the area, officials have said.
The Navy has led a dramatic, round-the-clock SAR (search and rescue operation) with its Western Naval Command’s Commander of Operations at the head.
Its efforts have been aided by the Coast Guard and ONGC.
Commodore MK Jha on Tuesday revealed some details of the challenging operation, telling the media, “The eye of the storm was right west of Mumbai…we did not bother… ships immediately sailed.”
The forces zeroed-in on the initial reported positions, but poor weather made visibility “literally negligible at times – at the most around half-a-kilometre to 1 kilometre.”