Landslide in Thane damages 6 houses as large stone rolls down from hill

Disaster management authorities in Maharashtra’s Thane reached the site following the landslide and shifted many residents to a Thane Municipal Corporation school.

Six houses were damaged and about 25 families were shifted following early Sunday morning landslide in Thane district’s Kalwa Ma Kali Chawl area in Kalwa east, disaster management officials said. They added that no one was injured in the incident that saw a huge stone roll down with mud.

No one was injured in Thane landslide but scores were killed in a landslide at Taliye village in Maharashtra’s Raigad district in July following heavy rains, prompting the government to begin planning a rehabilitation policy. (Hindustan Times Photo)

The landslide took place between 2 to 3.30 am on Sunday morning with a portion of a little hillock next to a small cluster of houses beginning to slide slowly, officials said. By the time residents sounded an alert, a portion of the hill including a large stone fell on some houses.

Disaster management authorities reached the site following the landslide and shifted many residents to a Thane Municipal Corporation school.

Santosh Kadam, a senior officer posted with the regional disaster management cell in Thane, said, “We have made residents vacate the six houses that were damaged. There was no casualty and no injuries in the incident. We have shifted around 22 to 25 families to a municipal school at Gholai Nagar.”

Western Maharashtra witnessed multiple incidents of landslides in July this year following a heavy spell of rains over a few days resulting in deaths of scores of people. Following the tragedy, the state government has come up with a plan to permanently relocate people living in hilly areas and rehabilitate them to safer places. The government said a policy would also be formulated for the management of water as parts of the state, especially the western Maharashtra region, witness floods during the monsoon.