Relentless showers over the last 24 hours lashed several parts of Maharashtra, particularly coastal Chiplun and Mahad in the Konkan region and Kolhapur and Satara districts in the ‘sugar heartland’ of western Maharashtra, leading to a flood-like situation in several places which has left thousands of residents marooned.
As per reports, at least five persons are believed to have died in rain-related accidents including three in a rockfall in Chiplun’s Parshuram Ghat area. A 50-year-old man fell from his terrace and was swept away by floodwaters in Mahad city in Raigad, and a rickshaw driver in Latur in Marathwada died when a tree collapsed on his vehicle.
The situation in Chiplun in Ratnagiri district is particularly dire, with efforts under way on a war-footing to rescue hundreds of residents feared trapped inside their houses. Nine NDRF teams — four in the Mumbai area and five in the Konkan and Kolhapur — have been pressed into action.
Red alert sounded
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who chaired an emergency meeting, instructed officials to be vigilant in the wake of the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) forecast of heavy to very heavy rains for the next three days. A ‘red alert’ has been issued for the Konkan region and an ‘orange alert’ for Kolhapur.
According to sources, the Vashishti and Shiv rivers which course through Chiplun city began overflowing a little after 3.30 a.m. on Thursday with the discharge of waters from a nearby dam, taking residents by surprise as the snaking floodwaters began rising to alarming levels.
Residents fear the situation to be far worse than that experienced in 2005. Since morning, panic-stricken appeals flashed out on social media, with marooned residents pleading the government to rescue them.
The old market area and the new bridge which straddles the city have been submerged by floodwaters. Due to continuous overnight rains, headwaters from dams passing through the Kumbharli Ghat — a mountain pass connecting coastal Ratnagiri with Satara district — have flooded the city. Several residential societies were half-submerged by water while countless shanties have been destroyed.
Scores of four-wheelers and two-wheelers were seen floating in the water, while several houses are said to have been damaged.
Remarking that the situation was extremely dire in the Konkan region, Sena MP Vinayak Raut, who represents the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha constituency, said water levels had risen eight-ten feet in the city while the old part of Chiplun was submerged under the floodwaters.
“Ratnagiri has been bearing the brunt of heavy rainfall that has been lashing the Konkan while the condition of Chiplun and Khed tehsil is especially bad. People are trapped in houses. Townships and bazaars have been inundated by floodwaters. I have urged Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray to immediately dispatch rescue teams and take help from the Coast Guard. Two National Disaster Response Force [NDRF] teams have already started from Pune while a State Disaster Response Force [SDRF] team had been dispatched from Kolhapur,” Mr. Raut said, adding that helicopters, too, would be mobilised to aid in rescue efforts.
Lethal combination of high tide and heavy rains
With a lethal combination of high tide and heavy rains derailing rescue efforts in the mountainous locales from the outside, authorities expressed fears that the NDRF teams would face a daunting challenge in reaching Chiplun. Municipal authorities have pressed all available boats into action.
Sena leader Anil Parab, Guardian Minister of Ratnagiri, said the first priority would be to rescue the people in the low-lying areas along the coast while Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vijay Wadettiwar said rescue operations had commenced in earnest.
The grim scenes in Chiplun, Khed and Mahad are already conjuring up harrowing memories of the 2019 floods which had ravaged Kolhapur and Sangli districts.
Torrential rains have forced the Mumbai-Goa highway to remain completely shut while traffic on the Konkan Railway to come to a standstill due to landslips and rockfalls have resulted rail . The Ghat areas in Pune district have especially witnessed a number of rockfalls with rail traffic completely disrupted along the Mumbai-Pune railway line following a rockfall at Karjat near Lonavala.
Authorities said a flood-like situation faced Mahad tehsil where the water had reached waist-levels. Mahad has received 207 mm rainfall in the last 24 hours. The floodwaters entered shops, bazaars, residential areas while communication was disrupted with several villages.
Despite nature wreaking havoc, politicking was not far off with BJP Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Legislative Council Pravin Darekar criticising the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government for failing to anticipate the magnitude of the monsoon disaster that befell the Konkan.
“An NDRF team ought to be permanently stationed in Konkan. It is a given that the region experiences extremely heavy rain. Why is it that the government machinery is awakening to the dangers only now when thousands of people are battling for their lives in flood-hit places like Chiplun?” Mr. Darekar said.
Two NDRF teams from Pune reached Kolhapur district before noon where several tehsils have been pummelled by downpour in the last 48 hours. While one entered Shirol, the other is stationed in Kolhapur.
While Gaganbawda and Chandgadh are among the worst-hit tehsils in Kolhapur, the district’s Panchganga river is flowing at 39 ft near the Rajaram bridge (the danger mark is 43 ft) while 105 barrages and waterworks are submerged under the rainwaters, said authorities. With more rain forecast throughout the night, the river is expected to cross the danger mark.
458 mm rain in the last 24 hours
Neighbouring Satara was not spared from monsoon fury either, with the hill station of Mahabaleshwar notching a record 458 mm rain in the last 24 hours, prompting a massive discharge of water from the Koyna dam. The district has been put on high alert.
The hill station of Matheran near Mumbai, too, clocked a staggering 330 mm rain while most tehsils in Kolhapur notched rainfall in excess of 200 mm over a 24-hour period.
Mudslips and rockfalls were observed in rural Pune as well, in the hill roads in the Ambegaon-Manchar area.
The Pune branch of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted widespread rainfall in the State till July 25, which is expected to cover almost 75% of the total area of Maharashtra.
Published - July 22, 2021 01:00 pm IST
