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Coronavirus: India’s lockdown traps truckers on roads, throws supply chains into disarray
- Experts say there might be up to 500,000 trucks parked across the country, unable to transport the vital food and goods they carry
- While many of their drivers are stuck far from home, shops in major cities are unable to restock amid massive disruptions to the supply chain
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More than 2,000km from home, Ananth is waging a lonely battle against hunger and thirst. The 30-year-old trucker has been stuck in the city of Kanpur, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, for the past fortnight – unable to deliver the goods he has brought all this way, or even see his toddler.
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Ananth, who goes by a single name and hails from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, is among tens of thousands of Indian truckers stranded on motorways and in the country’s remote corners amid the 21-day lockdown that came into force on March 24.
He is part of a vital supply chain, the lifeline pumping food and supplies around the world’s second most populous country – or he was, until Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s edict paralysed the movement of 1.35 billion people in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19.
With his provisions running out and eateries on the motorways also shut due to the lockdown, Ananth is at the mercy of altruistic individuals and non-government organisations in Kanpur.
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“I’ve been on the road for nearly a month now,” he said. “I brought about 10kg of rice from home but that has now run out. Thankfully some volunteers in this area offered me groceries so I can survive for a few more days.”
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