The News
The Nisarga cyclone recently gathered huge public attention across India even though it was less destructive than the recent Amphan cyclone, but this attention seemed to wane out just minutes after the cyclone. The reason for this attention was the initial prediction which said that Nisarga might hit India’s financial Capital Mumbai. Fortunately for Mumbai, the epicenter moved southwards and the cyclone hit 3 districts of Konkan. As Mumbai was not hit, most if not all media houses were unwilling to cover the destruction in the un-sensational Konkan. Thus, one can say ‘Konkan experienced what North-East experiences every year’.
Prabodhini
Still, the devastation did not go unrecognized. We in Jnana Prabodhini make it a point to be responsive to the call of society. In its glorious past Prabodhini has been involved in many natural disaster relief tasks, such as, the 1977 Andhra Cyclone, 1993 Latur Earthquake, 1999 Orissa Cyclone, 2015 Nepal Earthquake and many others, where there was massive loss of life and property. Since many years Youngsters go to Velhe for ‘shramdaan’ in order to solve the problem of drought. This mindset is still prevalent in Prabodhini. Hence, there were disaster relief teams sent to Sangli, Pune, Kerala followed by Konkan in the last 12 months itself.
First Response
This was no ordinary relief task, we had to fight two battles at the same time, as we were going through the COVID-19 lockdown. It was not possible to send huge team at once, it was obvious that we had to work while still abiding by all the rules put up by the government. The cyclone hit Konkan on 3rd June and the first team left with primary supplies immediately on 4th June. They distributed the supplies and carried out an important initial survey of what the urgent needs were, this information helped us a lot as now we exactly knew what to plan for, plus we had established contact persons.
Planning & Preparation
We immediately planned for the relief work and accordingly the purchased essential items, almost all the material was bought, packed and loaded in 4-5 hours only. Government permissions were also granted to us in just 1 hour, all this saved a lot of time and we were able to leave one day before actual planned date. I, Atharva Datar and Shantanu Inamdar left from Pune and were joined by Vinay Gadikar and Apoorv Damale in Kokan.
The Devastated Land
We saw the first signs of destruction in Tamhini Ghat itself, the cyclone had literally folded the electricity poles into half, it also had thrown some away as if they were mere pencils! The police outpost there was devastated as well, roofs had flown away, walls fallen too. This sent a few jitters, if this was the condition here, it would be definitely worse in Konkan. Unfortunately, we were right. When we entered Konkan, destruction was evident everywhere and it was accompanied by cluelessness about the future and I feel it was a natural feeling then, Konkan needed time to accept the problems bestowed upon them by Nisarga.
Stating below the problems which we observed:
A. The primary source of income, the ‘wadis/gardens’ were destroyed: this is not like any simple agricultural problem, because the trees need at least 7 to 12 years to grow and only then the farmers will get any income.
B. Houses destroyed: trees had fallen over houses, this caused major damage to the walls and the roofs.
C. Trees fallen over wells: Wells are an important source of water in Konkan, trees had fallen into or over the wells, this blocked the sunlight, this caused the fishes to die and hence the water left became impure to drink.
D. Trees fallen on roads: these trees blocked the roads and made it difficult for people to visit their farms, nearby villages, etc.
E. The rooftops had flown away: In Konkan, cement roofs are hardly used, most use light-weight Patras or Kauls, cyclone blew both away and this caused water to enter the homes and destroy the existing grains, clothes, etc. the supply of new patras and kauls were also not sufficient.
F. No electricity for many days: the electricity poles were destroyed too, so re-installation of this infrastructure was time consuming. No electricity meant no communication, no appliances and no relief.
G. Unequal distribution of relief material and opportunistic behavior of government as well as citizens.
Our Strategy
We decided to get to work right from the word go, after our contact with our seniors in Pune, it was decided that we will be working on two fronts. First was to do intense physical work that does a collective good for the village or town. Second was to help the most vulnerable sections of the society through material donation, for this we kept in mind the principle of equal distribution and no partiality.
Our Work
Our team of 4 people teamed up with the localities in every village, analyzed the situation and selected places which were problematic for the village and needed immediate solution. Our team was using heavy machines like chainsaws for the first time, after a few initial mistakes we understood the risk and reward that these machines yielded. Once we gained a bit of experience our work was smooth and had high utility. Also, our initial survey made sure that we were carrying the appropriate machines, ex: petrol operated water pumps to clean wells, plastic sheets, etc.
We spent almost one day in one village, worked as a task force for 6-7 hours daily, had a reflection and planning meeting at night and the work went on for one week. We also adopted two villages, Meghre and Niranjanwadi near Srivardhan and distributed food plus material to each and every house. These villages were devastated and people had lost their city jobs due to COVID-19 lockdown, we fulfilled their basic necessities. Overall, our efforts helped 4 villages in Ratnagiri and 2 in Raigad districts.
Experiences
We had experiences from both the extremes, on one side we saw people who favored politics over people’s needs, slow and inefficient decision making of the bureaucracy and government, misuse of power, needless appeasement and villagers seeking more financial help by sharing false information. This made me realize the meaning of the idiom, ‘A disaster is an opportunity’. Watching all this was depressing and made me understand why India needs Good and ethical institutions.
On the other side, we met extremely warm and accepting people, people who put the need of the village before their own, villages which put all their differences such as caste, religion, color and opinions aside and came together to re-establish the village and many more.
Learnings & Conclusions
1. Personally, understanding & analyzing what the on-ground situation is in a natural disaster, how decisions are taken was very important in order to be of more use in future.
2. Learning more about the social dynamics of rural India and the overall village ecosystem, process of re-establishing villages was important for me.
3. The urgent need of expert disaster relief task forces and volunteer organizations was again felt.
Konkan might be devastated today, but their people are not waiting for anyone’s help, their resilience is remarkable, their brotherhood is one to learn from and their attitude towards Nisarga is inspiring. Yes, some people felt Konkan has been sent 25 years backwards, yes some were complaining but no one said that Konkan was a lost battle! Konkan will stand up in a few months, but are we young people receptive to the calls of our nation? Are our fitness freaks willing to step into the uncomfortable mud and lift heavy trees? Are our master managers lending their expertise for logistics management in disaster hit areas? And are our social media influencers willing to spread awareness about such dreadful happenings? What is the use of our comfortable lives if not dedicating them for a national cause? I wish more people step out when the nation calls again…
- Prithviraj Lingayat
prithviraj.lingayat@gmail.com