The Maharashtra government on Wednesday said that it has evacuated around 60,000 people from the state’s coastal region of Konkan, and brought 7,003 fishing boats back to the shore with the help of disaster management authorities as Cyclone Nisarga made landfall.
The Konkan administrative region comprises seven districts in Maharashtra, including Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri.
“We have evacuated almost 60,000 people from districts such as Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Palghar and Thane. The number is likely to increase when updated figures are released,” said Kishor Raje Nimbalkar, secretary, relief and rehabilitation department.
“Additionally,” he said, “we have successfully brought back 7003 fishing boats. We believe citizens’ safety is top priority, and we began an operation on Tuesday to bring back all the boats from the deep sea. Now, there are no fishing boats in the Arabian Sea along the Konkan coast.”
Nimbalkar, however, could not confirm the number of fisherfolk who were brought back in their boats.
He added that all emergency services have been put on alert, including non-Covid hospitals that have been told to prepare for a possible influx of emergency care patients. “The administration has also stocked excess food and medicine as a precautionary measure,” he said.
Cyclone Nisarga, meanwhile, started its landfall around noon on Wednesday south of Alibag in Maharastra’s Raigad district. This is the the second severe cyclone to hit Mumbai since 1961.
“Landfall is just beginning. It will take three hours to complete the process,” said RK Jenamani, a senior scientist at the weather forecast department.
