A Gujrat village prepared for a storm that never was

 

MODASA (SABARKANTHA DIST), OCT 13: The alarm bells rang, but the storm they warned of never arrived. However, last week, village after village in the Modasa, Prantij, and Talod talukas of the Sabarkantha district, saw frenzied preparation for a cyclone the people believed would strike on October 8.
The Kandla disaster fresh in their minds, the villagers chopped off branches from trees, weighed or bound down thatchings, gathered rations, stored water in all available vessels, and even, word has it, dug trenches to shelter in. Never mind that the Sabarkantha district is landlocked. Never mind that even the coastal villages weren't preparing for a cyclone.
All they knew is that the talatis had warned them a storm might strike on October 8 and that they should not move out of their houses on that day. Shanty-dwellers had been told they should prepare to move into government schools for shelter, should the storm arrive.
The villagers did more than take those words seriously.
In Dolatabad village,60-year-old Mohansinh Solanki lost his life preparing for the storm that never was. "After the warning, he would pick an axe and climb the large imli tree behind our house every day to bring down large branches. We kept telling him he was too old to climb. On Monday [October 5] he was up there again, fell, and died on way to hospital,'' says his nephew Gabhusinh Solanki.
Around the house, over a dozen bared trees tell of the old man's labours. Mystery shrouds the origin of the prophesy that started the frenzy, reminiscent of the Dark Ages. While most villages said they read about it in a Gujarati paper, others said the talatis had warned them, on instruction from the collector.
But Sabarkantha collector Virat Vora says, "I think the confusion was created by a report which appeared in a vernacular daily. But before October 8, news did come in that a pressure had developed off the Goa coast. In this situation, had we issued instruction asking people not to get worried, it would have beencounter-productive if a cyclone indeed occurred.''
He says, after the Kandla disaster, the administration has standing instruction to be prepared for any eventuality, so on October 5 mamlatdars and talatis had indeed been asked to alert people. "But we never told them to ask people to fell trees, chop off branches. It's a silly thing to do! The talatis might have been misunderstood.''
Vora claimed that trees had not been damaged on a "large-scale'' and that the hysteria had affected only "three-four pockets of the districts''. And Talod mamlatdar Bamania says no trees were damaged in his jurisdiction.
In fact, over 300 trees were felled or damaged in the district, and there was more to the hysteria. In Bodi, Amodara, Bharadia Campa, Punsari, Rampur, and Ambasar, people worked at hectic pace preparing to save their belongings and their lives.
When it arrived, the D-Day was a long day indeed. Cattle was tethered in open fields, early in the morning. Children were told to stay home from school. Theydid not supply milk to the local co-operative. Dinner was cooked -- and eaten -- early, as they thought the storm was to strike about 4 p.m.
"All day long the people sat inside the four walls of their homes till midnight, praying to God to save them,'' says Solanki. And Dhirubhai Patel, a ration shop owner of Punsari village in the Prantij taluka, adds, "When the talatis warned us, we were bound to take their words seriously. After all we had read of Kandla.''
However, it was not all about overreaction alone. They should have heard the wireless message that was sent on October 8 from the control room at Himmatnagar, the district headquarters. Sent to taluka headquarters at 3:20 p.m. a transcript of the message reads: "A light depression in the central-eastern part of Arabian Sea has moved westward and has intensified. ...It may get more intense and move in north-west-westerly direction...so concerned authorities should be informed and measures should be taken as per the Disaster ManagementPlan.''
But relief commissioner Vijaysinh Parmar in Gandhinagar says no such warning or instruction had been issued to the district administration. Parmar is of view that some overenthusiastic officer at the district-level might have goofed up.
And the Indian Meteorolgy Department (Gujarat) director R.K. Kankane is bemused. He says a depression had developed in the Arabian Sea, but no cyclone warning of any kind was issued around October 8. The state government was told of it "only for information''.
Kankane is surprised how the rumour caught on in an inland area like Sabarkantha. But for the villagers, it had been serious business.