As many as 37 of the 75 people missing from a barge that sank in the Arabian Sea after being ensnared by Cyclone Tauktae are confirmed dead, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
As many as 37 personnel on board the barge are dead and 38 still missing, after Navy personnel, battling extreme weather, so far rescued 186 of the 261 people who were on board the barge P305 and two personnel from tugboat Varaprada.
The navy said its personnel, battling extreme weather, had so far rescued 186 of the 261 people who were on board the barge P305 and also two from the tugboat Varaprada. The chances of finding more survivors are bleak, the official said.
Three storm-hit barges, including Papaa-305, had been deployed by Afcons for a contract it had got from the State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
Indian Navy and Coast Guard ships and choppers, as well as vessels from the ONGC, are searching for more survivors, the sources said.
P-305 had living quarters for employees working offshore, while two other construction barges lost anchor and drifted away.
Besides the barges, a drilling rig of the ONGC, Sagar Bhushan, with 101 people on board (37 ONGC employees and 64 contractual workers) drifted away from its location. All of them have been brought to safety
The sources said all the 186 people on board the barge Gal Constructor, which ran aground about 48 nautical miles north of Mumbai’s Colaba Point, had been rescued.
Workers restore an electricity line damaged by the cyclone in Diu on Wednesday. PTI
Battling high waves
Workmen rescued from P305 have recounted how they battled tidal waves as high as 10 metres and strong winds while trying to stay afloat in the Cyclone Tauktae-churned Arabian Sea for almost 12 hours.
Some said they had almost lost hope of making it alive.
The warship INS Kochi arrived in Mumbai on Wednesday with 125 workmen rescued from P305.
“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,” workman Manoj Gite told reporters in Mumbai.
Gite, 19, a resident of Kolhapur, said that as the barge started sinking, all the workmen put on life jackets and jumped into the sea.
Another rescued workman said as the barge started to sink, he jumped into the waters in the middle of the night and tried to stay afloat.
“I swam for about 12 hours before the navy rescued me,” he said.
“The bodies of 26 people have been brought out,” an official said. Forty-nine people are still missing, he added.
A vegetable market damaged by Cyclone Tauktae in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday. PTI
45 dead on land
As many as 53 people lost their lives in cyclone-related incidents in Gujarat as it left behind a trail of destruction along the coast, uprooting electric poles and trees and damaging thousands of houses and roads.
Cyclone Tauktae made landfall between Diu and
Una town of Gir-Somnath district in Gujarat on Monday night.
Tauktae, categorised as an extremely severe cyclonic storm on Monday, has now weakened into a depression, the India Meteorological Department said.
Farmers in Surat collect mangoes that fell down from trees during the cyclone PTI
Mangoes destroyed
Cyclone Tauktae has caused huge damage to standing summer crops, with the Kesar variety of mango that is mainly grown in the coastal districts of Gir Somnath and Junagadh bearing the brunt along with coconut and banana plantations, farmers said.
Hundreds of mango trees were uprooted in plantations across Junagadh, Gir Somnath and Valsad districts, with nearly all the fruits falling to the ground, the growers said.
Kirit Patel, who owns a 75-acre mango farm in Gir Somnath district, said: “Nearly 40 per cent of Kesar mango trees have been uprooted, which is a huge damage as a tree takes nearly 15 years to bear fruit.”
Coconut plantations and banana plantations have also been badly hit.
“There were 14,000 banana plants, of which 9,000 were uprooted and destroyed,” said a grower in Rajkot.
