NAGPUR: The spread of Covid-19 in the city and other districts has triggered alarm, with some people who had left the city earlier for various works preferring not to return, and many leaving for safer destination, including to nearby forest areas.
With daily death toll mounting to over 60, and positive cases crossing 6,000, citizens are contemplating shifting to safer places at least till the period of lockdown. On Thursday, the toll was 74 in the district and over 5,800 tested positive.
Considering the upward coronavirus trend, those owning properties or farmhouses near forest areas and wildlife parks have already left the city.
“The spread of Covid-19 raises questions about community transmission in Nagpur. Before Tadoba was shut down for tourism from April 15, I had reached here when simple restrictions were in force. Now my family has also joined me,” says Nikhil Abhyankar, who has a resort at Kolara gate.
Abhyankar, who had earlier spent three months in the first wave at Kolara, said, “There can be no better place than living near forest. There is open space, no traffic, greenery everywhere, and no Covid-19 cases. Moreover, we don’t come in contact with people, especially when tourism is closed. Our stay also helps maintain the property.”
There are others like Saurabh Kurve, of Wardha Road, who has moved to Navegaon with his family in Tadoba buffer. Kurve, who also owns the property, is even offering a package inclusive of food and snacks for those who wish to take a break from the uncontrolled Covid-19 spread in city. “There are no coronavirus cases here,” he adds.
Manish Sharma has shifted with his family to his farmhouse near Madhya Pradesh side of Pench, and now doesn’t want to return. “The Covid-19 spread in Nagpur is the reason,” he admits.
Sharma said, “The farmhouse is my winter home. I had come here from Nagpur in October last when normalcy had returned and stayed for two months, but now that coronavirus has spread alarmingly, I’ve got a reason not to return. The place in eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) of Pench is a ‘global village’ with all modern facilities like internet, telephone etc and all consumables available like any other city.”
“I’ve been enjoying organic farming and have developed a nursery. There is no pollution and a peaceful atmosphere. My friends call me and miss the place and want to move out of the city looking at the haphazard development in Nagpur, which has fast turned into a polluted city. The density of the city was one of the major reasons for Covid-19 spread,” says Sharma.
Echoing the feelings, progressive farmer Diwakar Deshpande (75), a resident of Nagpur, who owns 32 acres agricultural land in Dhamangaon, was keen to spend the summer vacation with his family members at Nagpur but has dropped the plan.
“All the agriculture and allied activity is over and crop too has been harvested. Before the onset of monsoon, I hoped to spend summer time with my family but looking at the spread of coronavirus it seems impossible. It is better I stay at my farm than take a risk,” says Deshpande.