This village in Maharashtra is still untouched by Covid-19

'We sat together and decided to ensure that we would not allow coronavirus to enter our village,' the village's Police-Patil said

The picturesque Kalbhonde village – nestled along the boundaries of the Thane, Nashik and Ahmednagar districts of Maharashtra – has recorded what is arguably its greatest feat.

The village has zero Covid-19 cases – and has successfully battled the first wave last year and the current second wave.

However, people of Kalbhonde have started preparing for the third wave.

Kalbhonde – which has a population of 1,560 people and is spread over 1,800 hectares - is located in the Shahapur taluka of Thane district and is far from towns and cities.

“We followed all the guidelines that have been passed on to us by authorities,” Bhalchandra Khadke, the Police-Patil of Kalbhonde village said.

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According to Khade, the village had been tracking the news of the pandemic since the beginning. “In March, 2020, we came to know about the cases and then the lockdown was imposed…we gauged that the issue is serious and we sat together and decided to ensure that we would not allow coronavirus to enter our village,” he said.

The first important thing that the village did was to study its symptoms and list the preventive measures. “We decided on the priorities listed out and informed each and every villager of its dos and don’ts…in consultation with the village elders, we literally sealed the village,” Khade told DH over phone from Kalbhonde.

Isolation centres were made near the village's entry points so that villagers who work outside could be put up there. “Anyone who enters the village is sanitized fully,” he said, adding that villagers were not allowed until and unless it was absolutely necessary and unavoidable. “But all protocols were followed,” he said.

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Several NGOs, who were helping tribal villages and hamlets, too approached Kalbhonde but they preferred transfers to Gram Panchayat accounts.

“Our people work in farmlands elsewhere…but the village people cultivate rice, dals, vegetables, and roots. “We also have ponds from where we get fish and crabs,” he said, adding that the agenda was to keep minimum contact with the outside world.

“The village worked closely with Asha workers, Aanganwadi sevikas and school teachers in fighting the pandemic,” he said.

Asked about the vaccination drive, he said: “Registration of all villagers in the 18-44 category and 45+ group is fully complete. However, vaccination is yet to start.”