#Bhavnagar Helpline

[indiasendangered-blog]

When Will India's Flamingo Hub Cease To Be A Flamingo Graveyard?

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  Flamingoes have been known to fly into high-tension wires strung over saline wetlands, where the birds like to feed, but efforts to take the wires down have seldom succeeded.

Some of the images below might be disturbing. Viewer discretion is adviced. 

Brijesh Shah of Bhavnagar Animal Helpline has had a habit of visiting the salt pans of Kumbharvada, a known feeding site for flamingoes, on the city’s outskirts once a day. But over the last two months, Shah has had to visit them out of concern. He scouts the shallow waters, observing the flock, and hopes that he does not come upon a charred or decapitated bird around the 8-to-10-km-long stretch with high-tension wires overhead.

The first incident they’ve been involved with was on 10 December 2016, when 20 of the pink birds were reported to have died after flying into the wires. On February 11 and then again over the next two days,  more than two score birds had been electrocuted. The favoured feeding site had quickly devolved into a mass graveyard.

Flamingos that died after the collision with the wires. Image courtesy Brijesh Shah

“There is a wetland created out of unused salt pans and areas inundated with wastewater from Kumbharvada city,” Shah tells The Wire. “[Some] 1,500-2,000 flamingoes are seen here all year round as they come to feed in the shallow waters. But the high-voltage wire is right above that small valley. It is a 66-KV Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation Limited powered line. As soon as the birds fly above the shallow lake after their meal, they collide with the wire just 50 metres away.” They’re killed instantly – either by electrocution or the force of impact.

Shah and his colleague Shashikant, a veterinary doctor who answers the animal helpline,  recall how, after the moment of collision, the birds turn black or just swell up and burst like balloons.

Flamingo that died after the collision with the high tension wires in Kumbharwada. Image courtesy Brijesh Shah

“The bird is huge – over five feet and has long legs, wings and neck,” they say. “It doesn’t get hurt when it touches one wire. It is only when its wing touches two wires at once that it gets an electric shock.”

The Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation Limited (GETCO), however, denies that the birds in the last four incidents were electrocuted. They claim that the transmission line in question hasn’t been switched on in the last half year.

Read More : Climate Change Affecting Bird Migration In India

When it was in use, according to GETCO, it was being used by Nirma, a company manufacturing household chemicals, at a facility nearby. The company is now said to be taking power from the Ahmedabad Highway Systems.

The high tension wire over the flamingo feeding site in Kumbharwada. Image courtesy Brijesh Shah

Shrenik Shah, a local environmental activist, isn’t convinced: “Even if there is no power supply, collision with the wires is almost always fatal for the birds. Their wings get cut or their necks are broken or, even worse, the body is cut in two pieces due to the severity of the collision. We were unable to rescue even a single one out of the fifty that died this year.”

According to him, the power line has been there in the Kumbharvada area for the last decade or so. The flamingoes have been using it as a feeding habitat for much longer, leaving only for a few months before the monsoons to breed, returning again in June-July with many of their young ones. Shrenik says that a flamingo is killed every year. “Because of the industrial development in the area, the population of the birds might have reduced, lowering the [number of] bird hits. The incidents are not regularly reported, but the wires still hang there as a constant threat.”

The flamingo state

In June 2011, hundreds of flamingoes were killed by the same high-tension wires in Bhavnagar – but GETCO remained stubborn, denying all allegations. It said that the birds could have been killed by something else. But after conservationists protested, the municipal corporation and GETCO asked Bhavnagar’s mayor to drain out the habitat and give the flamingoes no reason to visit the city at all. Thankfully, the forest department and environmentalists intervened, highlighting the importance of the wetland and the many years it had taken to establish a safe habitat. The habitat was spared.

Gujarat is a flamingo hub in the country. Two species of flamingos are found here: the greater flamingo and the near-threatened lesser flamingo. Both species are residents of the state.

Virag Vyas, who studied the lesser flamingo for his PhD – with special reference to ecology, threats and conservation management, says that the portion of the Gulf of Khambhat near Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar districts, the coastal areas of Bhavnagar and Jamnagar and Kutch are major congregation sites for the birds during their non-breeding season. In fact, ‘Flamingo City’ in Kutch has been promoted as a tourist destination for being the only breeding site for flamingoes in Asia, being home to over 1.5 lakh birds throughout the year.

While the greater flamingoes do migrate over long distances, the lesser flamingoes are non-migratory nomadic species with flocks constantly moving between different feeding sites. Standing on their stick-like long legs in shallow mudflats, these birds stir up the bottom with their feet and duck their beaks down to catch their meal: shrimps, crustacea and algae.

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The carotenoid pigments in this food gives the flamingoes their distinctive pink colour. And the specialised habitat that provides this food is not available in many places in the world. These environments also tend to be naturally saline – and have been exploited by humans to produce salt over many centuries.

Read More: 9 Places In Mumbai To Watch Rare Birds

So, even if the Kumbharvada wetland complex is small, it is still uniquely important for the flamingoes. It is a habitat they cannot afford to lose to rapid industrialisation, highway projects and the life-threatening high wires – a fact that bears repeating in the face of the number of times flamingoes have been threatened by human activities, and the number of times nothing changed.

Beautiful flamingos lie dead after collision with HT wires. Image courtesy Brijesh Shah

In 2010, the world’s attention was drawn by Gujarat’s Khadir region when no fewer than 400 flamingoes were charred to death after hitting the wires. About 400,000 flamingoes had migrated to Khadir that year.

In 2011, Anika Tere, a zoologist at the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, and B.M. Parasharya, an ornithologist at Anand Agricultural University, had published a study that stated: “A passing vehicle or even a flipping fish can create a flutter in the flamingo colonies, leading to the birds flying into the cables. Overhead wires are not visible to them and they do not have enough time to manoeuvre to avoid collision.” The duo mapped seven sites in Kutch, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar where high-tension cables ran close to flamingo sites.

Under the media’s gaze, the forest department scurried to  install radium tags on the wires in Khadir. These acted as reflectors and warned the birds stay away. Then again, it was over three years and repeated follow-ups by environmentalists before the wires were taken underground.

Read More: Flamingoes End Up In Wedding Feast Menu Near Protected Sanctuary

In their study, Tere and Parasharya had briefly discussed the the Kumbharvada threat as well. “The collision of flamingoes with electric lines was noticed repeatedly at Nirma salt pans and Kumbharvada sewage pond in Bhavnagar district,” the paper read. “The collisions at these sites are so frequent that the local fishermen have learnt to scan areas with overhead wires and collect the birds for consumption.” This warning was ignored – with the effect that flamingoes continue to be killed to this day.

A persisting threat

Devesh Gadhvi, a deputy director at the Kutch Ecological Research Centre and a noted conservationist, says, “Since 2011, the mortality [among flamingoes] has been observed in Bhavnagar due to collision with the power lines. It is more of the collision than the electrocution. Dogs also play a role in such incidents: They chase the birds to kill them and, in haste, the birds fly haphazardly and collide with the power line.”

According to Gadhvi, the high-tension wires had been installed without conducting an environmental impact assessment (EIA). “Power lines should not be installed in any areas having frequent bird movements. A proper EIA study prior to the installation can solve this issue.”

As it happens, the Central Electricity Authority has issued multiple guidelines to all states asking for appropriate measures to save wild animals from electrocution. They include putting spikes on the lines to ward off animals, taking cables underground where possible, inspecting transmission lines twice a year and investigating every electricity fault. Even the UN Environment Programme had released guidelines in November 2011.

Read More: Road Through Rann May Ruin Flamingo Population

After the four incidents in Kumbharvada, the team from the Bhavnagar Animal Helpline installed a camera for a few days in the area. They wanted to prove – once and for all – to the media, the forest department and the government that the wires were killing the birds, contrary to what GETCO believed. Whether it was irony or sheer luck, no flamingo collided with the wires in this period. No new deaths have been reported since February either.

Colliding with HT wires might lead flamingoes to a tragic and untimely death. Image courtesy Brijesh Shah

Brijesh Shah says, “It is thanks to the security guards of the on-site Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute, who patrol the experimental salt farms. They call us so we can reach the site to see if any flamingoes can be saved.” Otherwise, the high-tension wires continue to hang over the feeding birds like a noose.

Says Gadhvi, “Looking at the human population and its demand for electricity and other basic requirements, some development is unavoidable and needs to be done. But it should be done after consulting subject experts, and all the suggested mitigation  measures should be implemented to reduce the ecological disturbance as much as possible.”

Even if Khadir set a positive example in 2014 after taking over 9 km of cables underground, there continues to be a gap between what has been put down on paper and what is executed. One can only hope that it won’t take another flamingo massacre to jolt lawmakers out of their reverie.

Read More: Increase In Flamingo Population In Sambhar Lake Rajasthan

This article by Atula Gupta was originally published in The Wire. 

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When Will India’s Flamingo Hub Cease To Be A Flamingo Graveyard? was originally published on India's Endangered

[neerthirai24]

Coronavirus August 16 live | New-look schools await AP students today

Coronavirus August 16 live | New-look schools await AP students today

The coronavirus-induced night curfew in eight cities of Gujarat was on Sunday extended till August 28, officials said. The curfew will be in place from 11pm till 6am in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Junagadh, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar and Gandhinagar, they said. You can track coronavirus cases, deaths and testing rates at the national and State levels here. A list of State Helpline numbers is…

[brajeshupadhyay]

Spike in COVID-19 cases due to aggressive testing, our health teams visiting every nook and corner, says Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani

Gujarat was one of the last states in India to record its first coronavirus infection, in the month of March, but earned the dubious distinction of recording the highest single-day fatality due to the virus — 49 — on Tuesday. The positive cases now stand at 6,245, with 368 deaths.

To add to the woes, scores of migrant workers came out on the streets on Tuesday in the state’s commercial hubs — Ahmedabad and Surat — following rumours about bus services to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

As the infections and fatalities spike up in the state, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, in an exclusive interview with Firstpost talked about his administrative preparedness in dealing with the advancing pandemic, use of plasma therapy, third phase of lockdown, the migrant labourer-crisis, restarting economic activities in the state and more. Edited excerpts follow:

What’s Gujarat government’s approach towards lockdown 3.0?

We have adopted a two-pronged approach. First, to ensure the safety and health of our citizens, for which we identified the hotspots and areas with fewer cases. Hotspot areas were sealed and the movement was restricted under the cluster containment strategy.

The second approach ensures sufficient availability of essential goods and services in the state. We’ve not let this lockdown affect our supplies of food grains, fruit, vegetables, milk, medicines and other medical supplies, and these are available in sufficient quantities across the state.

Through a strong supply-chain mechanism, we have ensured that the shelves of shop-owners have enough supplies and people are able to access them. While the citizens of Gujarat are cooperating, our police personnel are on the alert to maintain law and order and enforce the lockdown strictly. On the other hand, our lead COVID warriors — doctors, medical staff and police — are fiercely protecting the infected people.

We’re going very strict with red zones and continue to maintain lockdown in hotspot districts of Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Gandhinagar. However, following MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) guidelines, certain relaxation has been given to small businesses and standalone shops in red, orange and green zones.

Botad, Bopal, Khambhat, Bareja, Godhra and Umreth, which fall in the red zone, have not been provided with any other liberties except those related to essential items.

Click here for Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates

Jamnagar and Junagadh Municipal Corporations, and 156 other municipalities will be provided necessary permissions to restart industries and units in accordance with the Centre’s guidelines. Relaxation in the green zone will be as per the MHA guidelines, keeping social distancing and safety in mind. No movement of any kind shall be allowed from 7 pm to 7 am in any of the zones in Gujarat. Licensed liquor shops and tobacco shops shall remain closed in all the zones across the state in order to prevent crowding of people.

This is a critical scenario, and we are being cautious in giving any kind of further relaxation, over and above the permissions given to industrial units and businesses.

Gujarat had very few COVID-19 positive cases and fatalities initially. The first case was reported on 19 March, almost one-and-half months after India’s first case. How did it become the second state after Maharashtra in the number of cases (6,245 so far) so rapidly? And why does Ahmedabad account for the bulk of infections and deaths in Gujarat?

Right, the first case was registered on 19 March, but the government had already started taking preventive measure since early March, keeping in mind the inflow of travellers in Gujarat throughout the year.

As a pre-emptive measure, we started thermal screening at our airports and any traveller returning from a COVID-19 affected country was closely monitored. Around 30,000 people were home quarantined after being screened. Suspected cases were examined and only a few were found positive. This is the primary reason why Gujarat did not witness a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases immediately after the first case was reported.

The increase in the number of cases started happening post the Tablighi Jamat incident. As soon as we got to know about the infected people entering Gujarat, we started identifying them but by then, they had already come in contact with their friends and family in large numbers. In fact, a majority of the cases from Ahmedabad are from residential areas of the people, who had attended the Markaz event in Delhi.

At present, the spike in cases is because of the aggressive testing strategy. Our health department teams are going to every nook and corner, be it hotspot areas or infected areas of all the districts, to conduct these tests. Hence, the number is proportionate to the density of the population in each of these areas.

Surat also has emerged as a major hotspot...

Surat is now under control and 20 to 25 cases per day are being reported. Besides the factor that triggered infection in Ahmedabad, there is the Rana community in a locality called Maan Darwaja in Surat, among whom coronavirus got spread and led to the spike in numbers there.

What steps has your government taken to contain the fast spread of Coronavirus in the state?

We were almost the last state to see the first case for the virus, but the precautionary measures had been implemented when we got to know that this deadly virus had entered India.

Once we had our first case reported, we formed a core committee and discussed the strategy in detail with a conclusion to start our next step that was the identification of the potential cases through testing and their subsequent treatment and cure of the infection. At present, we are conducting more than 3,000 tests per day, and our test per million capacity is also increasing gradually.

For example, we put 750 teams of health officials for seven consecutive days in the hotspot areas of Ahmedabad and a team of 666 health officials in Surat for three days to conduct door-to-door tests and awareness drive in the hotspot areas.

Once the patients are tested and identified, we take them to the dedicated COVID-19 hospitals. We were the first state to open COVID-19 hospitals with a capacity of 2,200 beds (altogether) in four major cities in March itself. At present, Gujarat has 61 COVID-19 hospitals, including 31 private hospitals, with a capacity of 10,500 beds with 1,500 ICU beds and 1,500 ventilators. Treatment expenses are borne by the state and soon, we will expand the capacity to 22,500 beds, including 10,000 beds in COVID-19 Care Centres.

We are using drones to monitor the situation and anyone found violating the rules is punished. The use of a drone has further helped us in controlling the movement of people while giving real-time updates.

Despite having such an advanced system of micro-level tracking and monitoring every sector through your pet project — CM Dash Board, what’s the reason behind this sudden spike in COVID-19 cases?

Let me describe the mechanism behind the CM dashboard. The tool works on the input of thousands of data points, which are collected and processed at the level of districts and the departments. However, pandemic requires people’s cooperation and support. The spike happened because there were cases of Tablighi Jamaat members hiding their travel history. While on one side, we are aggressively testing in the infected areas, on another side, we also have helpline numbers for inquiries related to COVID-19 and for online consultations for people who have symptoms or even a doubt of the infection.

At the same time, the CM dashboard has been of utmost importance during this lockdown period. I have been conducting all administrative tasks and meetings using CM dashboard during this lockdown. Through this platform, I’m regularly in touch with the Corona warriors, who are working on the front line, like doctors, medical staff and police, and with district collectors, on the status of infection in each district.

What has the government done for migrant labourers and workforce stranded in the state?

The lockdown across the country was imposed at short notice, and the movement of people was restricted. Though the lockdown has caused inconvenience to the people, we all know it is for everybody’s welfare. As Surat is one of the fastest-growing cities in India, it has a large number of migrant workers from across the country. The government had communicated to the district administration, municipal corporations, business houses and social organisations to take care of all the people who were not from our state and to provide them with all necessary help.

I am proud of our local administration which has made special arrangements for more than 1.25 lakh labourers in Surat. We have distributed free rice, pulses, sugar and salt to these labourers, under our state’s scheme Anna Brahma Yojana meant for the poor, deprived, and helpless sections of the society. We’ve also covered those migrant workers who don’t have ration cards. Till now more than three crore food packets have been distributed to the people in need, including poor.

Very recently, we have also made provisions for the workers to return to their home states in case they want to. However, now with the opening up of industries and labourers getting work and wages, I hope the movement will be less.

Your government has roped in teachers of government-run primary schools to trace migrant workers and provide them with free ration. How far has this move been successful?

As part of the government machinery, the teachers are also rendering their services. This has been very successful as with the help of teachers acting as volunteers we could reach more people in a short span of time. This step ensured that no one in Gujarat sleeps hungry during this tough time. We all are in this together.

What are your plans to restart economic activities without inviting the risk of spreading COVID-19 and how would you manage social distancing at work? Are enough masks and protective gear available for the industrial workers?

After the Centre announced certain relaxation in the lockdown rules post 20 April, the core committee came up with a plan to ease the lockdown in a phased manner. We decided to grant permission to all those industrial units and businesses falling outside the limits of municipalities and municipal corporations and containment zones. We also provided the freedom to labourers to work for a 12-hour shift with additional remuneration for extra hours. The export units outside the containment zone with prior export orders were also granted permission to operate. Based on the MHA guidelines, industrial units are expected to follow certain Standard Operating Procedures to ensure safe and hygienic atmosphere at the workplace. The norms of social distancing are also being followed stringently.

As the number of cases was gradually rising in the country, we held meetings with the key manufacturers of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals in the state. We asked them to increase their productivity and ensure uninterrupted supplies. The government is regularly procuring these items, including N95 masks, PPE kits and protection gear, after checking the product quality. We’re also manufacturing Hydroxychloroquine medicine and we are comfortable with our stock. Gujarat is the first state to manufacture ventilators locally. After successful testing, we have placed an order of 1,000 units of the ventilator with a Rajkot-based firm.

Apart from this, after the Centre’s decision to relax the lockdown rules, we have till now opened around 40,000 industrial units where more than 5 lakh workers are back at work. At the same time, more than 30,000 people are working at private construction sites.

Are Gujarat hospitals going for plasma therapy to treat COVID-19 patients?

We’ve asked the Centre and ICMR to guide us on this. In Gujarat, this therapy has been tested on a patient and ICMR is also conducting experiments. If they succeed and we get a nod from them, we’ll implement it in our hospitals.

Recently, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi urged your government to relocate 6,000 fishermen from Andhra Pradesh who had got stranded along the Gujarat coast and were facing poor hygiene and sanitation facilities...

We’ve sent all of them back home safely. In fact, the Andhra Pradesh government delayed it for a week, otherwise, these fishermen would have reached home earlier.

Will you open up one of your major tourist destinations – Statue of Unity and the adjoining 18 tourist spots—that record more than 30,000 footfalls on weekends, once the lockdown is over?

The lockdown shall be lifted in a measured and phased manner. Our first priority is to safeguard lives and livelihood. Tourists destinations, places of mass gatherings etc. shall be opened at an appropriate time and we are not in a hurry to open them without weighing all the options.

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2YFdkzG

[brajeshupadhyay]

Gujarat was one of the last states in India to record its first coronavirus infection, in the month of March, but earned the dubious distinction of recording the highest single-day fatality due to the virus — 49 — on Tuesday. The positive cases now stand at 6,245, with 368 deaths. To add to the woes, scores of migrant workers came out on the streets on Tuesday in the state’s commercial hubs — Ahmedabad and Surat — following rumours about bus services to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. As the infections and fatalities spike up in the state, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, in an exclusive interview with Firstpost talked about his administrative preparedness in dealing with the advancing pandemic, use of plasma therapy, third phase of lockdown, the migrant labourer-crisis, restarting economic activities in the state and more. Edited excerpts follow: What’s Gujarat government’s approach towards lockdown 3.0? We have adopted a two-pronged approach. First, to ensure the safety and health of our citizens, for which we identified the hotspots and areas with fewer cases. Hotspot areas were sealed and the movement was restricted under the cluster containment strategy. The second approach ensures sufficient availability of essential goods and services in the state. We’ve not let this lockdown affect our supplies of food grains, fruit, vegetables, milk, medicines and other medical supplies, and these are available in sufficient quantities across the state. Through a strong supply-chain mechanism, we have ensured that the shelves of shop-owners have enough supplies and people are able to access them. While the citizens of Gujarat are cooperating, our police personnel are on the alert to maintain law and order and enforce the lockdown strictly. On the other hand, our lead COVID warriors — doctors, medical staff and police — are fiercely protecting the infected people. We’re going very strict with red zones and continue to maintain lockdown in hotspot districts of Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Gandhinagar. However, following MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) guidelines, certain relaxation has been given to small businesses and standalone shops in red, orange and green zones. Botad, Bopal, Khambhat, Bareja, Godhra and Umreth, which fall in the red zone, have not been provided with any other liberties except those related to essential items. Click here for Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates Jamnagar and Junagadh Municipal Corporations, and 156 other municipalities will be provided necessary permissions to restart industries and units in accordance with the Centre’s guidelines. Relaxation in the green zone will be as per the MHA guidelines, keeping social distancing and safety in mind. No movement of any kind shall be allowed from 7 pm to 7 am in any of the zones in Gujarat. Licensed liquor shops and tobacco shops shall remain closed in all the zones across the state in order to prevent crowding of people. This is a critical scenario, and we are being cautious in giving any kind of further relaxation, over and above the permissions given to industrial units and businesses. Gujarat had very few COVID-19 positive cases and fatalities initially. The first case was reported on 19 March, almost one-and-half months after India’s first case. How did it become the second state after Maharashtra in the number of cases (6,245 so far) so rapidly? And why does Ahmedabad account for the bulk of infections and deaths in Gujarat? Right, the first case was registered on 19 March, but the government had already started taking preventive measure since early March, keeping in mind the inflow of travellers in Gujarat throughout the year. As a pre-emptive measure, we started thermal screening at our airports and any traveller returning from a COVID-19 affected country was closely monitored. Around 30,000 people were home quarantined after being screened. Suspected cases were examined and only a few were found positive. This is the primary reason why Gujarat did not witness a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases immediately after the first case was reported. The increase in the number of cases started happening post the Tablighi Jamat incident. As soon as we got to know about the infected people entering Gujarat, we started identifying them but by then, they had already come in contact with their friends and family in large numbers. In fact, a majority of the cases from Ahmedabad are from residential areas of the people, who had attended the Markaz event in Delhi. At present, the spike in cases is because of the aggressive testing strategy. Our health department teams are going to every nook and corner, be it hotspot areas or infected areas of all the districts, to conduct these tests. Hence, the number is proportionate to the density of the population in each of these areas. Surat also has emerged as a major hotspot... Surat is now under control and 20 to 25 cases per day are being reported. Besides the factor that triggered infection in Ahmedabad, there is the Rana community in a locality called Maan Darwaja in Surat, among whom coronavirus got spread and led to the spike in numbers there. What steps has your government taken to contain the fast spread of Coronavirus in the state? We were almost the last state to see the first case for the virus, but the precautionary measures had been implemented when we got to know that this deadly virus had entered India. Once we had our first case reported, we formed a core committee and discussed the strategy in detail with a conclusion to start our next step that was the identification of the potential cases through testing and their subsequent treatment and cure of the infection. At present, we are conducting more than 3,000 tests per day, and our test per million capacity is also increasing gradually. For example, we put 750 teams of health officials for seven consecutive days in the hotspot areas of Ahmedabad and a team of 666 health officials in Surat for three days to conduct door-to-door tests and awareness drive in the hotspot areas. Once the patients are tested and identified, we take them to the dedicated COVID-19 hospitals. We were the first state to open COVID-19 hospitals with a capacity of 2,200 beds (altogether) in four major cities in March itself. At present, Gujarat has 61 COVID-19 hospitals, including 31 private hospitals, with a capacity of 10,500 beds with 1,500 ICU beds and 1,500 ventilators. Treatment expenses are borne by the state and soon, we will expand the capacity to 22,500 beds, including 10,000 beds in COVID-19 Care Centres. We are using drones to monitor the situation and anyone found violating the rules is punished. The use of a drone has further helped us in controlling the movement of people while giving real-time updates. Despite having such an advanced system of micro-level tracking and monitoring every sector through your pet project — CM Dash Board, what’s the reason behind this sudden spike in COVID-19 cases? Let me describe the mechanism behind the CM dashboard. The tool works on the input of thousands of data points, which are collected and processed at the level of districts and the departments. However, pandemic requires people’s cooperation and support. The spike happened because there were cases of Tablighi Jamaat members hiding their travel history. While on one side, we are aggressively testing in the infected areas, on another side, we also have helpline numbers for inquiries related to COVID-19 and for online consultations for people who have symptoms or even a doubt of the infection. At the same time, the CM dashboard has been of utmost importance during this lockdown period. I have been conducting all administrative tasks and meetings using CM dashboard during this lockdown. Through this platform, I’m regularly in touch with the Corona warriors, who are working on the front line, like doctors, medical staff and police, and with district collectors, on the status of infection in each district. What has the government done for migrant labourers and workforce stranded in the state? The lockdown across the country was imposed at short notice, and the movement of people was restricted. Though the lockdown has caused inconvenience to the people, we all know it is for everybody’s welfare. As Surat is one of the fastest-growing cities in India, it has a large number of migrant workers from across the country. The government had communicated to the district administration, municipal corporations, business houses and social organisations to take care of all the people who were not from our state and to provide them with all necessary help. I am proud of our local administration which has made special arrangements for more than 1.25 lakh labourers in Surat. We have distributed free rice, pulses, sugar and salt to these labourers, under our state’s scheme Anna Brahma Yojana meant for the poor, deprived, and helpless sections of the society. We’ve also covered those migrant workers who don’t have ration cards. Till now more than three crore food packets have been distributed to the people in need, including poor. Very recently, we have also made provisions for the workers to return to their home states in case they want to. However, now with the opening up of industries and labourers getting work and wages, I hope the movement will be less. Your government has roped in teachers of government-run primary schools to trace migrant workers and provide them with free ration. How far has this move been successful? As part of the government machinery, the teachers are also rendering their services. This has been very successful as with the help of teachers acting as volunteers we could reach more people in a short span of time. This step ensured that no one in Gujarat sleeps hungry during this tough time. We all are in this together. What are your plans to restart economic activities without inviting the risk of spreading COVID-19 and how would you manage social distancing at work? Are enough masks and protective gear available for the industrial workers? After the Centre announced certain relaxation in the lockdown rules post 20 April, the core committee came up with a plan to ease the lockdown in a phased manner. We decided to grant permission to all those industrial units and businesses falling outside the limits of municipalities and municipal corporations and containment zones. We also provided the freedom to labourers to work for a 12-hour shift with additional remuneration for extra hours. The export units outside the containment zone with prior export orders were also granted permission to operate. Based on the MHA guidelines, industrial units are expected to follow certain Standard Operating Procedures to ensure safe and hygienic atmosphere at the workplace. The norms of social distancing are also being followed stringently. As the number of cases was gradually rising in the country, we held meetings with the key manufacturers of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals in the state. We asked them to increase their productivity and ensure uninterrupted supplies. The government is regularly procuring these items, including N95 masks, PPE kits and protection gear, after checking the product quality. We’re also manufacturing Hydroxychloroquine medicine and we are comfortable with our stock. Gujarat is the first state to manufacture ventilators locally. After successful testing, we have placed an order of 1,000 units of the ventilator with a Rajkot-based firm. Apart from this, after the Centre’s decision to relax the lockdown rules, we have till now opened around 40,000 industrial units where more than 5 lakh workers are back at work. At the same time, more than 30,000 people are working at private construction sites. Are Gujarat hospitals going for plasma therapy to treat COVID-19 patients? We’ve asked the Centre and ICMR to guide us on this. In Gujarat, this therapy has been tested on a patient and ICMR is also conducting experiments. If they succeed and we get a nod from them, we’ll implement it in our hospitals. Recently, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi urged your government to relocate 6,000 fishermen from Andhra Pradesh who had got stranded along the Gujarat coast and were facing poor hygiene and sanitation facilities... We’ve sent all of them back home safely. In fact, the Andhra Pradesh government delayed it for a week, otherwise, these fishermen would have reached home earlier. Will you open up one of your major tourist destinations – Statue of Unity and the adjoining 18 tourist spots—that record more than 30,000 footfalls on weekends, once the lockdown is over? The lockdown shall be lifted in a measured and phased manner. Our first priority is to safeguard lives and livelihood. Tourists destinations, places of mass gatherings etc. shall be opened at an appropriate time and we are not in a hurry to open them without weighing all the options.

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