On May 18, the morning after Cyclone Tauktae thundered through Mumbai, Janardhan Koli and other fishermen from Madh Koliwada trooped toward...
On May 18, the morning after Cyclone Tauktae thundered through Mumbai, Janardhan Koli and other fishermen from Madh Koliwada trooped towards the shore to assess the damage to their boats. The cyclone was fiercer than any storm he had seen before, and Koli had braced himself for the worst.
Still, he could not help but cry out in agony at the sight that awaited them at the shore.
“There were broken boats everywhere,” Koli said. “Two of them had completely split apart in the middle. Many were so damaged, it will cost lakhs to repair them. My own Trimurti had a big crack at the bottom, and many other smaller cracks.” Trimurti is one of the two small vessels that the 42-year-old fisherman depends on for his livelihood.
After the cyclone, the Maharashtra government offered fishing communities a compensation of Rs 25,000 for completely damaged boats and Rs 10,000 for partially damaged ones.
This amount is a joke, says an indignant Koli. “The government needs to do much more. Repairing Trimurti could cost up to Rs 2 lakh, which I don’t have,” he said. After a year of Covid-19 restrictions and high diesel prices hitting the fishing industry, his threadbare savings have been wiped out.
“These days I don’t even have the money...
