Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 24: After battering by Coronavirus, Maharashtra is now facing rain fury with at least 136 people killed in landslides and floods in the last few days, officials said on Saturday. Most of the deaths are from Raigad and Satara districts, the official said.
More than 100 people have died and thousands moved to safer locations as heavy rains continue to batter Maharashtra, triggering landslides and floods in several districts.
The Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday visited Raigad to take stock of the situation in the flood-ravaged district. At least 76 people have died, 38 injured and over 60 gone missing as heavy rains continued to batter parts of Maharashtra.
The downpour has been described as “unprecedented” by the state government as it caused landslides and house collapses in the western and southern areas of the state. Over 7,000 were rescued from parts of Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur districts which have been worst affected by the rains.
Even as the armed forces and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) carried out rescue and relief operations, the forecast by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) promised no immediate relief for the state. The IMF has issued a red alert for six districts of Maharashtra, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg in coastal Konkan and Pune, Satara and Kolhapur in western Maharashtra forecasting “extremely heavy” rainfall and recommending preventive actions.
On Saturday morning, a passenger train derailed between Dudhsagar and Sonaulim in South Goa after heavy rains and the overflowing of the Vashishti river between Chiplun and Kamathe in Maharashtra.
Heavy rains in parts of Karnataka have claimed three lives, led to landslides in eight places and evacuation of about 9,000 people in the last over the past 24 hours. The government has sounded a Red alert in seven districts.
Widespread heavy to very heavy showers are likely to continue across India’s west coast for the next two days, following which the intensity of the rain is likely to reduce, the IMD Forecast said.
East and adjoining Central India will also receive heavy to very heavy rains for the next two days. Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are predicted to receive heavy rains while isolated heavy to very heavy falls are likely in these regions on 25th and 26th July. The IMD has also predicted an increase in widespread rainfall activity in the northeastern states of India from July 26 onwards.
In the worst-hit Maharashtra, the deceased included 38 killed in a landslide in Talai village in Raigad district on Thursday.
Landslides also hit Ambeghar and Mirgaon villages in Satara’s Patan tehsil during Thursday night, burying a total of eight houses, said Ajay Kumar Bansal, Superintendent of Police, Satara rural. Ten persons were also feared trapped after a landslide in the coastal Ratnagiri district. But no deaths have been confirmed in the two incidents by local officials so far.
As many as 11 bodies were recovered till Saturday afternoon in the landslide-affected villages of Satara and Ratnagiri districts, said officials. While five bodies were recovered from Ambheghar village of Patan taluka of Satara district, six others were recovered from Porse village of Ratnagiri district.
Ratnagiri district collector B N Patil said, “Six bodies have been recovered so far from Porse village. An NDRF team, an Army battalion and local administration are working at the spot to recover the bodies. We are not sure about the number of people who may have got trapped in the debris and slush.”
Patil said people of the affected village have been moved to relief camps where they are being provided with food and medical assistance.
Satara district collector Shekhar Sinha said, “The search to find missing persons trapped under debris is on. Till now, six bodies have been found.”
In Pune division, 84,452 people, including over 40,000 in Kolhapur district, were shifted to safer places as rains battered the region. The Panchganga river near the Kolhapur city was flowing at a level higher than that witnessed during the peak of floods in 2019, officials said.
As many as 54 villages were completely affected due to the floods while 821 were partially affected, officials said. At least 39 roads, including 10 state highways, are closed for traffic due to the floods in Kolhapur district. As many as 40,882 persons have been shifted from flood-affected areas in Kolhapur district alone.
The official put the death toll in various incidents in Western Maharashtra’s Satara district at 27. Other fatalities included those reported from eastern districts such as Gondia and Chandrapur.
Besides Pune and Kolhapur, the division also includes the districts of Sangli and Satara. Satara is hit hard, especially by heavy rains and landslides. In Sangli district, over 36,000 people have been shifted to safer places, the officials said.
In Kolhapur district, 11 people, including eight Nepalese workers, were rescued before the bus in which they were traveling was swept away in the flooded Chikodi river.
In another incident in the wee hours of Friday, a Ratnagiri-bound bus of the Karnataka government’s transport service got stranded in water on Kolhapur-Panhala road. All 25 passengers were safely evacuated, the police said.
Rescue teams of the NDRF, State Disaster Response Force and other agencies shifted people to safer locations by Friday evening, the officials said. Rescue teams are also evacuating stranded people using helicopters. More teams of the Indian Army and Navy will join the rescue works, officials said. The NDRF teams have been pressed into rescue operations.
The Maharashtra government has, meanwhile, announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of people who have died in landslides triggered by heavy rains in different parts of the state.
A statement from the Chief Minister’s Office in Mumbai said Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who announced the financial assistance, also expressed grief over the loss of lives. The statement said landslides have been reported in ten places spread across Raigad, Ratnagiri and Satara districts. The injured will be treated in hospitals at government expense, the statement said.
As many as 14 NDRF teams have been deployed in the affected areas, the chief minister said.
He said 500 people have been rescued in Chiplun in Ratnagiri district and four relief centres have become operational in the coastal town, around 250km from Mumbai.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray also expressed grief over the loss of lives in the Raigad landslide and spoke to the collector about the flood situation on Mahad, the CMO release said.
Thackeray said in view of the incidents of landslide, the state government would come up with a plan to permanently shift and relocate people living in hilly areas. He also said that a policy would be formulated for management of water as parts of the state, especially the western Maharashtra region, witnesses floods during monsoon due to rise in river water levels.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday condoled the loss of lives in the landslide in Maharashtra’s coastal Raigad district and announced an ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh for the next of kin of the deceased. Modi said the situation in Maharashtra due to heavy rains was being closely monitored and assistance was being provided to the affected.