9 dead, five missing as rescue boat capsizes in Sangli village

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has announced ex-gratia of ₹5,00,000 to the next of kin of the deceased.

Nine persons were killed and five to six were missing after a boat carrying around 32 people in flood-hit Brahmanaal village of Palus taluka of Sangli capsized during a rescue operation on Thursday morning.

Army soldiers and social workers relocate flood-affected residents in Sangli on Thursday. (UDAY DEOLEKAR/HT)

Seven women and an infant were among the nine dead. Of the passengers, 19 people managed to reach the shore on their own, district officials said.

Eight of the dead were identified as Varsha Bhausaheb Patil, Rajmati Jaipal Chaugule, Nanda Tanaji Gadade; Kalpana Ravindra Karande, Kasturi Balasaheb Vadar; Babasaheb Appasaheb Patil Vadar, Lakshmi Jaipal Vadar, and Gangubai Bheema Salgar. The ninth victim was five-month-old Rajveer Appasaheb.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has announced ex-gratia of ~500,000 to the next of kin of the dead. The boat was organised by the village leaders and the police patil was himself on the boat when it turned turtle. Police patil is a person appointed by state government to assist the rural police.

During a press conference in Kolhapur, Fadnavis said the confluence of the Krishna and the Yerla rivers at Brahmanaal had marooned the residents for the last three days, and rescue work was underway to evacuate people trapped in the village.

Fadnavis said 11 teams were deployed in the rescue operations at Sangli: eight from the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), two from the Coast Guard, and one from the army.

The boat capsized when the fan of the craft apparently got caught in a submerged part of a tree while people were being rescued from the village and taken to the Khatav area .

“As of now, we have reports that 19 people have come to shore on their own. There were around 32 people present out of which nine dead bodies were brought to the shore by various rescue teams. Two NDRF boats, the deputy superintendent of police, the additional superintendent of police, and other divisional officials are now on the spot. The panchayat deployed the boat on their own. It was not a part of the rescue detail,” said Sandeep Mhaisekar, divisional commissioner of the Pune division which comprises of five districts including Sangli.

According to him, five to six people could still be missing. “The residents do not have a clear idea of how many people were in the boat. The number may be higher than 32,” he said.

“We have now requisitioned all the private boats and taken them back to avoid meddling with rescue operations,” said Mhaisekar.

“The boat was operational for the past 2-3 days. Even this morning it did two rounds. It was overloaded as people were hyper. The fan got stuck in a tree branch,” Atul Patil, a local resident, who was present at the spot, told news channel News18Lokmat.

Around 30,000 to 35,000 villagers are still stuck in the rural parts of Sangli and Kolhapur, according to the district officials. The district officials deployed multiple rescue efforts. However, like the capsized boat, various private rescue teams, including those organised by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), are also active in the area.

Sangli district collector Abhijit Chowdhury said about 82,000 people and 22,000 animals had been temporarily rehabilitated in Sangli district while another 20,000 people and 5,000 animals had been rehabilitated from Miraj taluka alone.