East Midnapore district administration evacuated around 50,000 tourists in all, over 5,000 from Digha alone, on Sunday ahead of cyclone Remal set to hit the coastline of Bengal and Odisha around midnight.

Police and hotel owners had a tough time managing the sudden influx of tourists in Digha on Saturday and early on Sunday, who arrived to witness the high tidal waves lashing the sea hours before Remal's anticipated landfall.

However, most of the tourists, who booked rooms at hotels close to the sea, had to leave town or find accommodation at safer places following police intervention.

“We apprehend a flood-like situation with tidal waves expected to reach a height of about 3 metres before lashing on the banks and inundating the adjacent areas. So we cannot take any risk,” said a senior police official, who claimed to have shifted around 50,000 people to safer places.

“There are several vulnerable places located close to the sea bank, which usually suffer the most during cyclones. Considering the severity this time and the possible threat of high tidal waves that could cause serious damage to lives and properties near the sea, we have shifted around 50,000 people across the district to safer places”, said district disaster management officer Mrityunjoy Mondal.

“During May 2021, when cyclone Yaas hit the coastline of our district, a stretch of 72km was devastated due to the high tidal waves. The flood-like situation caused serious damage to people and properties. So, we have shifted people to safer places and told tourists to shift as fast as possible,” an official said.

“Moreover, the most worrying aspect is that the cyclone is likely to hit the area at night, which could create multiple problems," the official added.

Once the two-day restriction of entry of the outsiders due to the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha poll was over, thousands of tourists arrived in Digha on Sunday morning to experience the high tidal waves triggered by the deep depression created over the Bay of Bengal.

From the early hours of Sunday, the tourists gathered on the sea beach of Digha and the adjacent New Digha Township. Despite the guard lines installed by civic volunteers and police patrol, many tourists tried to sneak beyond the danger zone to click selfies and pictures.

According to a state government directive, the district administration later in the morning issued an evacuation order. Hotel owners were directed to ask boarders to leave as an immediate protective measure.

Bipradas Chakraborty, the joint secretary of the Digha-Sankarpur Hoteliers’ Association, said: “We were ordered to evacuate the tourists on Sunday morning. Many tourists had arrived by then. So we told our members (hotel owners), particularly those with hotels close to the beach, to evacuate tourists."

Manashi Halder, a resident of Bankura, who came to Digha with her family and was forced to return, said: “We were suddenly told to leave the hotel. If the instruction came earlier, we could have avoided the harassment.”

To control the entry of tourists to Digha, services of all the New Digha-bound trains have been suspended till Monday morning. The Puri bound Digha-Puri Express left from Kharagpur on Sunday evening.

The district administration held a high-level meeting in Tamluk town to ensure rescue work and distribution of relief materials on an emergency basis. “All the gram panchayat offices have been directed to set up control room throughout the Sunday night and to coordinate with the district unit,” an officer of the district administration said.

In South 24-Parganas, the district administration identified eight blocks as vulnerable and shifted 20,000 people to safer places. In islands like Sagar, Ghoramara, and Gosaba, rescue teams have been deployed with all relief materials.