16 dead, over 100 feared trapped in landslide in Raigad district village

Rescue operations by NDRF and other local bodies at Irshalwadi a challenge due to bad weather; will resume today

Mumbai/ Khalapur At least 16 people died and over 100 are feared trapped under debris and loose soil, following a landslide at Irshalwadi, a village in Raigad district, around 63 kilometers from Mumbai. The incident occurred at 10:45 pm on Wednesday when the region was in the grip of heavy rain. The village had a population of 228, of which 103 were rescued. Of the 21 injured, 17 were given first aid and six admitted to MGM Hospital in Panvel.

Volunteers from Thane, Navi Mumbai and Raigad districts had arrived earlier to help in the rescue operation. “Ground zero presented a devastating sight – the mudslide had buried the entire village. Some families were wiped out completely. We had to remove the debris manually, till teams from NDRF and Thane Disaster Relief Force arrived. The rain made our job difficult,” said Mohammed Hanif Hussain Karjikar, from Aapda Mitra, a volunteer organisation from Khopoli. He added, a group of 50 to 60 workers landed up at the site soon. (Satish Bate/HT PHOTO)

Almost all the houses were flattened, barring five.

The incident was first reported by a young boy from the village who travelled 10 kilometers to reach the nearest police station at Chouk, in Khalapur. Only three kilometres from Chouk to Irshalwadi is motorable. After learning about the incident, police alerted members of Chouk Gramast Mandal, a local youth organisation, and together they made the uphill climb and reached the village after midnight.

Around the same time, chief minister Eknath Shinde got in touch with the Konkan divisional commissioner, Mahendra Kalyankar, and Raigad collector Yogesh Mhase, to put in place the disaster management machinery and rush to Chouk. A team of 23 personnel from National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) arrived at the village at 4 am. Local MLA Mahesh Baldi had informed the chief minister about the incident.

Volunteers from Thane, Navi Mumbai and Raigad districts had arrived earlier to help in the rescue operation. “Ground zero presented a devastating sight – the mudslide had buried the entire village. Some families were wiped out completely. We had to remove the debris manually, till teams from NDRF and Thane Disaster Relief Force arrived. The rain made our job difficult,” said Mohammed Hanif Hussain Karjikar, from Aapda Mitra, a volunteer organisation from Khopoli. He added, a group of 50 to 60 workers landed up at the site soon.

“The trail approaching the hamlet has become slippery. It takes more than one-and-a-half hours to reach the site. Rescue teams had to walk up to the village,” said Dattatrey Nawale, deputy collector, Raigad, at the end of the day.

Difficult terrain

As the rescue operation could not be carried out in full force due to poor weather conditions, there is an uncertainty over the fate of the people trapped under the debris.

Deepak Tiwari of NDRF said, “The operation had to be called off in the evening due to bad weather. If we had machinery such as earth movers at our disposal, the work could have been expedited and we could have rescued more people.” The rescue operation was called off at 5 pm, for fear of further landslide in the dark. It will resume from 5am on Friday.

At the ongoing assembly session, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said, “Earth movers – weighing 1.2 tonnes -- could not be airlifted by Indian Air Force choppers, due to bad weather. The choppers were kept ready at Mumbai airport. We are trying to take three bob cut machines to the spot. Of them, one has been reached to the NDRF base camp made near the spot, while the other two are on their way.” An additional 1,000 personnel from CIDCO have been deployed to speed up the rescue operation manually.

An officer from the district administration said the manual operation was being carried out at a slow pace and feared that in the absence of earthmovers the death toll may rise. “The process could have been expediated if we had used helicopters in search operation. This support will be ruled out on Friday as well, as Raigad continues to be under red alert. Since it is not clear how many people of the village were away at the time, it is difficult to give an absolute figure of the trapped. We are preparing a list of all the villagers of the hamlet,” he said.

The chief minister reached the base of the hill early on Thursday morning and walked up to the spot by afternoon. Shinde said that the district administration has identified 102 people who will be rehabilitated in temporary transit camps. He announced the ex-gratia of ₹5 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased. Union home minister Amit Shah spoke to Shinde and Fadnavis and extended support to tackle this crisis.

Two NDRF teams were on call for the rescue operations with the help of fire brigade officials, local revenue machinery and police officers. Guardian minister of Raigad Uday Samant, rural development minister Girish Mahajan, public works (undertakings) minister Dada Bhuse visited the spot. Local trekker groups -- Yashwanti and Sahyadri -- helped the NDRF in rescue operation.

“The NDRF teams reached the site at 4am on foot. We have been monitoring the operation from Mantralaya through the control room set up at the foot of the hill,” said Fadnavis, adding the tribal hamlet was not in the list of landslide vulnerable villages.