Villagers in Elephanta Island were filled with hope when tourism resumed after the COVID-19 lockdowns. But with fear of a third wave and few tourists showing up, they begin the new year with apprehensions.
Elephanta Island resident Shailesh Mhatre earns barely a few hundred rupees from his stall these days.
“That’s a blessing,” said the 38-year-old COVID-19 survivor.
Because a few months back even that amount had been hard to come by.
The economy of the island known for its Elephanta Caves – a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site – is dependent on tourism. Most islanders make a living by selling artefacts, costume jewellery and mementoes to tourists, while others run food stalls and a few work as tour guides.
During the pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns, the Elephanta island – about an hour’s boat ride away from Mumbai – was literally marooned.
With the Elephanta island now open to tourists, life is just beginning to crawl back to normalcy for the nearly 1,400 residents of Shetbandar, Rajbandar and Morabandar villages in island, after nearly a year and a half.
With the boat services to Mumbai shut during the lockdowns, the islanders had to get their supplies from Uran, a town in mainland Maharashtra.
Shailesh Mhatre, a resident of Rajbandar village in Elephanta island, contracted COVID-19 in June 2021, while helping the islanders collect supplies from Uran. His 10-day treatment cost him Rs 30,000, which he had to take a loan to pay.
Then as soon as he recovered, his 58-year-old mother developed symptoms and had to be admitted to a COVID-19 care facility for five days.
“Thankfully, she didn’t develop any serious complications because she had taken the first dose of the vaccine,” recalled Shailesh Mhatre.
But his mother had to undergo a surgery recently. While relatives loaned him the money at the time, he is in debt of Rs 50,000.
“It was very critical for me to manage things at such a time,” he said.
While his mother recuperates at home, he manages her fruit stall to keep the income flowing.
Stories like this are sadly not uncommon across the Elephanta island.
When octogenarian Janabai Gharat died three months ago, her family had a difficult time completing the final rites and other formalities, as the villagers were not fully vaccinated, which was mandatory for much of the necessary travel at the time.
With their tourism-dependent livelihoods non-existent during the pandemic, it was a struggle for the residents of the Elephanta island, despite some lockdown relief measures.
Shetbandar villager Prakash Patil’s experience epitomises that of most islanders.
From moving back to Morabandar from Uran, since he and his family could not afford their rented house, to letting go their two employees in their family-run food stall since they could not afford the workers’ salaries, it had been a struggle for the Patil family. In order to survive they had to sell their family jewellery, which was deeply upsetting for them.
Finally, Patil, along with his daughters Manasi and Esha, resorted to catching fish to sell to make some money.
“During the lockdown, it was nearly impossible to make ends meet,” recalled Nanda Gharat of Shetbandar.
Faced with an arduous crisis, the entire family began to catch kalva – a shellfish indigenous to the coasts of Elephanta Island – travel to Nhava village in mainland by a small trawler and sell them at Rs 150 per bottle.
“My hands and back would ache endlessly as we had to collect the oysters, pry open the shells with a sickle to take out the meat, but I had no choice,” recalled Gharat. She would work every day, from 8 am till 1 pm, to fill barely one bottle of kalva to sell.
Rajbandar resident Durvesh Mhatre’s salary as a panchayat worker at the entrance to the Elephanta Island also has been erratic over the last two years.
His colleague and Morabandar resident Nilesh Panchal, handling the ticket counter for the last 17 years, living in a joint family of 15 members said, “After the lockdown, the collections for the panchayat too slumped significantly.”
“Before the lockdown, the island would witness up to 2,500 visitors on weekdays and up to 5,000 visitors on weekends, but now we barely have 700 visitors on weekdays and about 2,000 visitors on a good weekend,” said Panchal.
What seemed like a promising flow of tourists into the island following the slump in the second wave of COVID-19 towards the third quarter of 2021 has now been reduced to nearly naught.
Fears of an imminent Omicron wave that threatens to bring a third lockdown has kept visiting tourists away from Elephanta Island.
Nanda Gharat’s hat-selling business has resumed following the start of tourism activities in the island and she no longer sells oysters. But fears of an imminent lockdown or stoppage of tourists to the island once again are real. Gharat fears a repeat of the days of yore when prospects of the next meal seemed bleak.
Gajanan Khergamker is a Mumbai-based independent writer, solicitor and filmmaker.
