Cyclone claims 6, hits one-third Maha, Raigad bears the brunt

The trail of devastation on Wednesday by Cyclone Nisarga – which claimed 6 lives – was spread across nearly one-third of Maharashtra with Raigad bearing the brunt of its fury, officials said here on Thursday.

In Raigad, an estimated few lakh homes have been damaged, while around 13,000 ‘kutcha’ houses destroyed, around 100,000 trees uprooted, thousands of electric poles, 14 electric substations and 1962 transformers were razed, 500 mobile towers have fallen, 10 fishing boats damaged, over 5,033 hectares of farmlands besides 12 acres of fish farms have been destroyed.

Various district Collectors and Divisional Commissioners provided the details of the Nisarga havoc to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray this afternoon.

Relief & Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar informed that around 13-14 districts – or more than one-third of Maharashtra’s 36 districts – have been affected by Nisarga and he would go on a tour from Saturday for a spot assessment of the damages.

Nearly 76,200 people from low-lying or risk-prone areas were shifted to safer locations to avoid the cyclone fury which claimed 6 lives and injured another 16 in different parts of the state.

Thane Guardian Minister Eknath Shinde and Collector Rajesh Narvekar informed that 162 ‘kutcha’ homes were destroyed and there were 360 incidents of big or small tree branches crashing.

The state government has announced a compensation of Rs.4-lakhs to the kin of each deceased victim.

Mumbai, which escaped the cyclone by a whisker, suffered over 80 incidents of tree crashes, some vehicles damaged, and two homes destroyed.

Thackeray directed all the district collectors and divisional commissioners to prepare the panchnama reports of the extent of damage in their respective districts/regions within two days to enable extend aid to the victims.

Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat said that since its difficult to provide relief in the absence of electricity, it was imperative to restore power supply on priority.

Energy Minister Nitin Raut rushed to Raigad today to direct the restoration of the power supplies and other relief works as the real extent of the cyclone’s havoc emerged.

Raigad Guardian Minister Aditi Tatkare urged the state government to declare a special package for the district which suffered hugely in the cyclone.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s Leader of Opposition in Assembly Devendra Fadnavis urged the government to immediately assess the damage caused by the cyclone and arrange for early relief to the people.

BJP Leader of Opposition in Council Pravin Darekar demanded an aid package expeditiously for the cyclone victims on the lines of the relief package given by the previous BJP government during last year’s floods in western Maharashtra.

Besides Raigad, the cyclone or its effects has hit other districts like Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Pune, Nashik, Ahmednagar before it fizzled out into a depression early today in the Vidarbha region of eastern Maharashtra.

Many parts of Maharashtra including the coastal Konkan region and Mumbai continued to be lashed by heavy rains or showers for the most part of the day, providing welcome relief from the sultry hot temperatures experienced in the past few months.-IANS news