Toll in Maharashtra floods rises to 149

Sixty-four people are still missing, official data revealed, while nearly thousand more people were evacuated from Sangli late on Saturday, taking the number of evacuated to around 230,000.

The death toll in the flood-ravaged districts of Konkan and western Maharashtra on Sunday rose to 153, amid receding water levels of major rivers and dams. Sixty-four people are still missing, official data revealed, while nearly thousand more people were evacuated from Sangli late on Saturday, taking the number of evacuated to around 230,000.

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The torrential downpour over Thursday and Friday triggered the worst floods and landslides in decades in Raigad, Ratnagiri, Palghar, Thane, Sindhudurg, Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara districts. In Sangli, 196,957 people have been evacuated, while in Kolhapur, 145,930 people have been taken to safe places and temporary shelters. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and armed forces teams deployed in rescue operations in the eight districts recovered few more bodies from the debris at landslide sites on Sunday, while search operations at a few sites were called off by evening.

Eight more bodies were recovered from the landslide site at Taliye in Raigad on Sunday, taking its toll to 64, while the toll in Satara rose to 41 from three landslide sites. A few bodies in Taliye were recovered from as far as 2km on Sunday.

Kolhapur had reported six landslides on Friday, while Raigad had three landslides in Taliye, Sakhar Sutarwadi and Kevlane.

The death toll of the landslide in Ambeghar, Satara, touched 14, while the Mirgaon landslide claimed 8 lives. Nine people in Satara are still missing. The NDRF called off the rescue operation on Sunday evening. In Ratnagir, a total of 35 people died and 14 are still missing, mostly from landslide sites.

“The rescue operations at most of the landslide sites are expected to be called off by Monday as the chances of the recovery of missing people from the sites are very small. The bodies are likely to have washed away with the force of the water and may have travelled far off,” said an official from district collectorate in Raigad. The water level in many rivers in Konkan and Western Maharashtra has started receding since Saturday, though many of them are still at the warning level. Krishna, Warana rivers in western Maharashtra, Savitri, Kundalika in Konkan are flowing either at the warning level or below it. Most of these rivers were above the danger level on Friday. Panchagana is still above its danger level of 43ft as it is flowing at 51 at Rajaram band in Kolhapur. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray visited flood-affected Chiplun on Sunday and assured affected people of relief in the next few days. Thackeray also announced to set up a separate disaster response system on the lines of NDRF in every district. “The assessment of the losses will be completed in the next four days, but before that, all basic facilities to the flood-affected people will be extended immediately. The natural calamities are occurring frequently in some parts of the state, and hence we have decided to have a dedicated system for every district. The flooding in Chiplun and Raigad has been unprecedented as people did not get a chance to save their belongings because it happened all of a sudden,” he said.

“We will require central assistance for long-term mitigation measures. The central government has provided assistance by deploying rescue teams from defence forces,” he later said. Thackeray said the state’s economy was already “sluggish” because of the pandemic.

After the state government’s request for additional teams of NDRF and armed forces, the 33 teams (with 45 personnel in each team) are engaged in rescue operations, while eight teams are on standby in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. Eight teams in Kolhapur, six in Ratnagiri, four in Satara and two in Sangli have been deployed in rescue operations. Ten teams of the armed forces (Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guards) have been deployed in operation.

As the Karnataka government started discharging more than 3,50,000 cusecs water on Sunday, the level of the water in Krishna, Panchganga, Warana rivers in Kolhapur and Sangli has stabilised in the last 24 hours. Panchganga river’s water level as Rajaram band in Kolhapur was highest at 51 feet at 4pm on Sunday, down from the 54.05ft on Friday at 5pm. Discharge from Koyana dam in Satara, too has been brought down to 30,864 cusecs at 4pm on Sunday, which had gone up to more than 50,000 cusecs on Friday. Satej Patil, minister of state for home and guardian minister of Kolhapur Satej Patil said, “The water level in major rivers has stabilised and the water on roads has started receding. However, the water level is still above their warning level and will take a few days to the situation to normalise.”

Major state and national highways were still shut owing to the water logging and in few cases roads and bridges are having washed away. Kolhapur-Pune, Mumbai-Goa, Kolhapur-Ratnagiri were shut till Sunday evening in patches in Ratnagiri, Kolhapur and Sindhudurg. In Kolhapur, which was badly affected due to downpour on Thursday and Friday, 17 of 25 state highways are still shut and total 366 villages have been affected.

Leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis and union MSME minister Narayan Rane visited Taliye village where more than 30 people are still missing and 42 people were declared deadafter a landslide on Thursday evening. “I have spoken to prime minister Narendra Modi. He has assured me all kind help from the central government. I will submit a report to the PM after the visit. The rehabilitation of the people affected in the landslide will be done at the site they want to. Rescue teams of NDRF and arm forces have been deployed in affected district, we will try to keep a few teams stationed in Raigad or Ratnagiri keeping the constant risk of downpour every monsoon in mind,” Rane said.

Till Sunday, the NDRF, which is conducting rescue operations in Taliye in Raigad, Porase and Pedhe in Ratnagiri, and Mirgaon, Ambeghar and Dhokawale in Satara district, has retrieved 90 bodies, SN Pradhan, NDRF director general, tweeted on Sunday. A total of 875 villages have been hit by the floods.