Nearly 1,500 tourists remained stranded at Neil and Havelock, two famous tourist destinations of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, after Navy ships failed to dock because of heavy swells formed due to the depression over southeast Bay of Bengal on Wednesday.
Early in the morning, the Andaman Nicobar Tri-Service Command sent INS Bitra , INS Bangaram , INS Kumbhir and LCU 38 to evacuate the tourists in the two islands some 40 kilometres east of Port Blair. An LCU is a ‘landing craft unit’ that can land on the beach to make evacuation easier. This rescue followed a request from the civilian administration to bring back nearly 800 tourists visiting Havelock Island.
Heavy swells
Subsequent reports said there are around 1,100 tourists at Havelock and 450 tourists at Neil Island, mostly from West Bengal and Gujarat, and Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai. According to West Bengal’s Tourism Minister Gautam Deb, about 600 stranded tourists are from West Bengal. As of 6 p.m., the ships were unable to berth at Havelock jetty because of heavy swells in the sea. Swells are big waves formed due to prolonged wind action.
The Navy ships, however, continue to remain anchored near Havelock Island, waiting for the weather to allow docking. Neil Island has a jetty facing the open sea.
Meanwhile, the meteorological department predicted that the depression situated 260 km west-northwest of Car Nicobar and 310 km south-southwest of Port Blair will intensify into a deep depression over the next 24 hours and then into a cyclonic storm in the subsequent 24 hours.
Sources in the local administration say there is concern that the depression has been practically stationary over the past six hours, instead of moving in the northwest direction as had been expected, which means the islands may have to brace for prolonged rough weather.
“The problem is that the system is virtually static and not moving, because of which the bad weather and rough sea state continue to remain localised. Had the system moved away, it would have carried the bad weather along with it, away from Havelock,” an official said.
Rain warning
The local administration has issued a heavy rainfall warning. According to the Andamans’ disaster control room, wind speed will be 40-50 kmph, gusting to 60 kmph the next 48 hours.
“Currently, there is heavy downpour since Tuesday. Lieutenant Governor Jagdish Mukhi held a high-level meeting with the local administration and took stock of the situation and relief work,” protocol officer of the Andaman Islands A.K. Roy told journalists.
“The situation is very severe here. God knows when we will be able to return home,” said Dipak Biswas, a tourist from Kolkata stranded at Neil Island.
The tourists also face “acute cash shortage”. The Hindu was told on the phone that there are only three ATMs in Havelock and they have been out of cash for more than a week.
“One of the ATMs received some money occasionally. The rest are without any money and there is a massive queue,” said Bipul Raha, a resident of Havelock. He also said that the cash shortage has been going on since the last two to three weeks. There are only two banks on the island.
“Not only are we stranded here but we also cannot withdraw adequate cash from the ATMs and banks because of the cash shortage after demonetisation,” said Satyabrata Banerjee, who is stranded at Havelock.
Rough weather: A view of the Aberdeen jetty in Port Blair on Wednesday.
Holiday declared
The administration has declared a holiday for schools and colleges of Andaman and Nicobar Islands for the second day on Thursday. However, parents were furious that by the time the administration had declared a holiday on Wednesday, most students had reached their schools and colleges.
(With additional inputs from Kolkata bureau)
