Hope floats in marooned village

The flooding in the village was exacerbated when excess water was released from the Sindphana dam on September 22, even as the region was being battered by unprecedented rain. Connectivity is unlikely to be restored for at least another two days, as heavy discharges from the dam are expected to continue

Majalgaon, Beed: Sandas Chincholi, a village with a population of 2,154 and over 400 families, has remained cut off from the rest of the world for the last eight days after the only bridge connecting it to the neighbouring villages became submerged in flood waters. However, through this time of isolation, the village has witnessed several dramatic incidents — a 19-year-old woman giving birth, four other pregnant women in the last month of their pregnancies being evacuated and medicines being drone-dropped.

Beed, India. Sep 28, 2025 - An aerial view of Sandas Chincholi village in Beed district. In the last six days, people have been stranded in Sandas Chicholi village in Majalgaon Taluka in Beed district due to heavy rain and flooding surrounding the village. Severe rainfall has caused flooding in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region, resulting in two fatalities and the evacuation of over 11,500 residents. Beed, India. Sep 28, 2025. (Photo by Raju Shinde/HT Photo) (Raju Shinde)

The flooding in the village was exacerbated when excess water was released from the Sindphana dam on September 22, even as the region was being battered by unprecedented rain. Connectivity is unlikely to be restored for at least another two days, as heavy discharges from the dam are expected to continue.

Ever since the construction of the Sindphana dam in 1989, rising water levels have been known to intermittently turn Sandas Chincholi into a marooned island, with flood water surrounding it on all sides before the merging into the Godavari river, a kilometre away.

The flood-soaked village was caught unawares by the release of water from the dam on September 22, which increased in volume by the next day. But even as it lost connection with the world, villagers managed to put themselves together enduring hardships, and when the water started receding on September 25 they breathed a sigh of relief. But their state of ease was to be short-lived, for the same day a fresh red alert was sounded for five days beginning September 26.

Having learnt their lesson, the local administration used the intervening day when the rainfall abated and the red alert, to stock up food, medicines and water.

Akshay Chandel, Talathi, a revenue officer who has been stationed at Depegav village, which lies on the other side of the river, said, “Apart from stocking up on essentials, we shifted five pregnant women from the village to the safer places in other villages. Asha workers have been deployed in the village to take care of the elderly. A water tanker has also been arranged to ensure a steady flow of clean drinking water, as the water in the well submerged in flood water may have become contaminated. Water is supplied to the village from this well.”

When 19-year-old Suvarna Chandanshive delivered a baby boy in the isolated village on September 22, a team from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) shifted her and the baby to Majalgaon village. The villagers from Depegav and government officials arranged a drone from an NGO to drop medicines the trapped elderly in Sandas Chincholi required.

Villagers are now demanding that the government relocate the entire village to a safe zone, so that they are not victims of future calamities. “We want the entire village to be rehabilitated,” said Shrikrisha Shejwal, a former upsarpanch, from Sandas Chincholi. “Though the government has made all possible arrangements in the village this time, we fear for our and our ageing parents’ safety,” he added.

He added that the village’s mobile and electricity connections helped villagers keep in touch with residents of neighbouring villages. “We took the help of fishermen on Sunday to rescue a girl who suffered a dog bite and took her to a civil hospital. On Monday, an elderly person was also taken to the hospital after the fisherfolk rescued him in their boat,” he said.

Ashok Giri, upsarpanch of the village, said, “Fear has gripped the villagers, especially as most live with the elderly and physically weak.”