Pune flash floods aftermath: District death toll touches 26, one still missing

Rescue teams from Shrigonda recovered another body on Sunday; city death toll stands at 18

Five days after the flash floods wreaked havoc on Pune, the whereabouts of Victor Sangale, who was driving towards Wanowrie on the night of September 25, is still unknown.

Sangale, who has a prosthetic leg, was driving a white Tata Tiago, registered to his name with a licence plate number of MH12RK8732. He is suspected to have been washed away in the flash floods.

On Sunday, rescue teams from Shrigonda, Maharashtra, recovered yet another body, taking the total death toll in Pune to 18 and in the district to 26. The body has been identified as Saalim Shaikh, a resident of Wanowrie.

Shaikh had gone missing on the night of September 25 and his family has been searching for him ever since. “He was found in Shrigonda. A body was earlier found in Daund and was mistaken to be Shaikh. We are on our way back to Pune,” said Tahir Shaikh, Saalim’s younger brother.

Shaikh was a manager-level employee at Nvidia Corporation in Pune. He is survived by his parents, wife and three children. 

The people who died due to the flash floods have been identified as Rohit Amle (13); Santosh Kadam (55); Janhavi Sadavar(32); Sritej Sadavar (8); Lakshmibai Pawar (70); Jyotsna Rane (30); Gajrabai Sudam Khomane (70); Sambhaji Pawar (58); Chakuli Khomane (22); Gauri Suryavanshi (15); Sainath Bhalerao (20); Amruta Sudame, (37); Machindra Banavle (40), Suman Shinde (65), Kishor Girme (54), Suvarna Jadhav; Mukesh Lohar (32), Suraj Vadkar (25); Ganesh Shinde (27); Sham Suryavanshi (40); Arti Suryavanshi (35); Nikhil Chavan (22); Dharmanath Bharti, a man identified only as Rajendra, and an unidentified transgender person. 

The rainfall of September 25 night was marked with flooding of canals, roads and houses submerging vehicles and residences. People were swept away in the strong flow, and there were multiple incidents of wall collapses reported across the city. The district administration has conducted punchnamas of at least 2,807 places affected by the flash floods including commercial and residential areas.

In the rains that started at 8 pm on Wednesday and battered the city till 11:45 pm. Thousands were stranded on Wednesday as the downpour submerged many areas of the city and muddy water entered homes.

A large number of vehicles - with area residents estimating as high as 2,000 - were found submerged in the waterlogged areas of Sahakarnagar, Bibvewai and Dandekar Bridge in southwest Pune.

Many cars were seen overturned and some washed away long distance from where they were parked.

Schools and colleges of the district had declared a holiday on Thursday because of the deluge. Locals said over 1,000 cattle died in the rain.