Mumbai cops stop patrolling island due to lack of boats
The Mora coastal police in Mumbai have stopped their daily patrolling of Elephanta Island after passenger boat services from Mora were terminated due to heavy rains. Residents have complained that the local police is not taking the required measures for their security. The island has a population of around 2,000 people and is visited by 3,000- 4,000 tourists every day. 
The police have stopped visiting and patrolling on the Elephanta Island, the popular tourist spot for past few days, as the passenger boat services from Mora in Navi Mumbai have been terminated due to heavy rains. The Mora coastal police do not have speed boats (or any boats) to go the island.  The island, which has a population of around 2,000, comes in the jurisdiction of the Navi Mumbai police. Every day, police officials from the Mora coastal police station leave for the island in the morning in the passenger boats that ferry the local villagers and come back in the evening.However, that boat service has been terminated temporarily due to heavy rains and high tides over the past few days. As the police have no other options, they have stopped visiting the island for now.?Because of incessant rains and high tides, it has become very difficult to negotiate with the sea. The passenger boats that ferry people to the island could easily overturn during such situations. Due to lack of transportation system, our officials are not visiting the island for the past several days,? said an official from Mora police station.Mukunda Bhosale, senior police inspector of Mora police station said that police officials will be sent to the island, as soon as the passenger boat services are started. However, he refused to comment on how they would tackle the situation if a major crime or terror attack takes place on the island when there is no boat to visit the island.Hemant Nagrale, the police commissioner of Navi Mumbai was unavailable for comments.According to the Maharashtra tourism department, 3,000-4,000 tourists including foreign nationals visit the Elephtanta Island every day when boats are available from the Gateway of India in Mumbai. The number of tourists increases during weekends and festivals like Christmas and New Year.How safe is the Elephanta Island?The Elephanta Island, previously known as Gharapuri, houses three villages- Rajbunder, Shetbunder and Morabunder, with a population of around 2,000. According to the Gharapuri Gram Panchayat officials, around 8 lakh tourists visited the island in 2016 and around 30% of them were foreign tourists.?There is enough to do when it comes to safety and security of the people at the island. Tourists who come from Gateway of India are checked by the Mumbai police before they board the ferries. But there is no such system to check the people who come from other places of Navi Mumbai. We have asked the local police to take some requisite measures many a time, but to no avail,? said Sunil Padte, sarpanch of Gharapuri gram panchayat.  