2 Sunderbans islands cut off after 3 cases in mainland

Kolkata: Panchayat officials of two remote islands in the

Sunderbans

archipelago — a Unesco world heritage site — have insulated themselves and stopped boat services to

Kakdwip

and the mainland, in a desperate attempt to stop the

Covid-19

virus from crossing the waters and infecting the islanders.

The decision followed news that three persons admitted at Kakdwip sub-divisional hospital had tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday. “Three persons, a 72-year-old woman from Bakin-athapur, a 70-year-old man fom Ramnagar Rathtala and a 48-year-old man, have tested positive,” Sagar MLA Bankim Chandra Hazra said. Sagar PS officer-in-charge alerted the

Ghoramara

and

Mousuni

panchayat pradhans.

Ghoramara has been in the spotlight over the threat it faces from sea level rise due to climate change.

“We have been advised to travel to rural healthcare centres at Namkhana and Dwariknagar for medical emergency. Though the journeys will be longer and more arduous, we have no option,” said Ghoramara panchayat pradhan Sanjib Sagar.

While paddy and vegatables are grown on the islands and they breed fish in ponds and catch them at sea, travel to the mainland is required to purchase edible oil, spices, medicines and other essential items. Both islands have stocks that will last a week.

Residents of Mousuni island, that is less remote than Ghoramara, are so alarmed that Parvati Patra Mondal, 23, who delivered a baby at Kakdwip hospital on Saturday has been asked not to return till further notice. Her father-in-law, Susanta Mondal, 55, who had accompanied her has been asked to rent a house and stay there for now.

Residents of these islands who battle cyclones many times a year and intuitively realise threats had in the initial stage of lockdown ensured proper quarantine of migrant labourers after they returned from Kerala, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Largescale migration from the Sunderbans had happened a decade ago after the islands were ravaged by Cyclone Aila in May 2009.