Small Island Near Mumbai First In World To Go Into ”Self-Quarantine”
All daylong 30-odd ferry services and products linking Panju Island with the mainland at Naigaon had been suspended.
Palghar:
On the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, all of the citizens of the tiny Panju Island, off Mumbai, went into self-quarantine two days in the past – making it almost certainly the primary of its type united voluntary motion on any isle on this planet.
Near Thane’s border, round 15 km from Borivali station, the Panju Island is only spotted through thousands and thousands of day-to-day commuters at the Western Railway’s Borivali-Virar suburban sector.
It nestles a inexperienced oasis of 600-acres with massive swathes of salt pans, swaying coconut bushes, dotted with rice, culmination and vegetable farms between the 2 palms of the sprawling Thane Creek, which separates the rustic’s industrial capital from the mainland.
Panju Island inconspicuously fleets through in seconds between WR’s Bhayander and NaigaonAstations as suburban native trains go over it, however is only visual when long-distance trains zoom alongside the Vasai bridges at the northern and southern aspects reducing the small isle into east-west wings.
“The improvement got here after Top Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Janata Curfew’ name on Sunday, adopted through different difficult measures carried out through Maharashtra Leader Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The roughly 1,500 villagers determined to stay in self-quarantine until March 31, or so long as the government need,” Sarpanch of Panju village Ashish Bhoir stated.
All daylong 30-odd ferry services and products linking Panju Island with the mainland at Naigaon had been suspended, barring excessive clinical emergencies.
Many of us who trip lengthy distances to paintings in Mumbai-Thane are sitting at house as additionally the kids, who’re playing an elongated holiday until colleges – optimistically – reopen mid-June.
All guests, the occasional batch of guided vacationers and out of doors staff are banned, whilst round 100 fishing and dredging boats of the Panju-ites are moored on the shore, in keeping with the village chieftain.
“Thankfully, no person at the island’s combined age-group inhabitants of Marathis has exhibited any indicators of COVID-19 to this point however we’re taking no probabilities. So, we unanimously determined to stay in whole isolation until the risk alerts recede,” stated Ashish Bhoir.
Any other resident, Kiran Bhoir, stated the once a year Panju jamboree on Hanuman Jayanti beginning April 1 has been cancelled.
“Even the weekly congregational prayers (satsangs) are stopped until additional orders, as additionally the once a year village sports activities tournaments in April, to forestall crowding. We’re taking all precautions to make sure Coronavirus does not assault our gorgeous island,” Kiran Bhoir stated.
Round 10 % of the inhabitants is deficient and depending on day-to-day wages for survival, in keeping with Raju Patil who works in a Thane manufacturing unit.
“In a excellent gesture, the Sarpanch has directed the opposite villagers to deal with all such other folks and their households through offering them with meals and different necessities as and when required. No person is authorized to undergo,” Mr Patil stated.
Unfold over 2.50 squarekm, Panju Island is a ‘zero-pollution’ no-vehicle zone, with a college, a tiny well being centre, a number of temples and the villagers most commonly domesticate rice, greens, guavas, chikoo, banana, mango, jamun and coconut whilst many mission day-to-day to paintings in factories, corporations or non-public workplaces in Mumbai-Thane.
With a wealthy historical past going again to the day of the mythical Maratha commander, Normal Chimaji Appa (1707-1740), who fought the Portuguese aggressors from the island, Panju village used to be house to 21 martyrs who died all over India’s Independence fight.
