Pune engineer among 4 killed in Maharashtra rain fury; Army chopper airlifts stranded in Beed district

Pune/Nashik/Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Heavy to extremely heavy showers lashed parts of Maharashtra with at least four people reported dead in rain-related incidents in the 24 hours ending Monday morning.

A 23-year-old engineer from Kharadi in Pune died and his friend was injured after a boulder hit them following a landslide triggered by heavy rain in the Kalu waterfall area of Malshej Ghat, around 150km from the city, on Sunday afternoon. The duo had gone out with an adventure group for a trek, police said.

One person drowned in an overflowing nullah and another died of cardiac arrest during a rescue operation in the Ashti taluka of Beed district, as overnight rain lashed many parts of the district and the region. Shivkumar Swami, resident deputy collector of Beed, said a holiday was declared for schools on Tuesday. An Army helicopter and local rescue teams evacuated over 50 people stranded in half a dozen flood-hit villages in Ashti.

In Ahilyanagar, a person died and two others were swept away in water bodies, while 159 people were rescued from flooded villages in four talukas of Ahilyanagar since Monday morning. Over 120 villages across Pathardi, Shevgaon, Karjat, and Shrigonda talukas of the district were affected.

IMD data showed that Matheran in Raigad recorded 270mm of rain, its second-highest single-day quantum since 1972, during the 24-hour period ending Monday morning. Panvel (Raigad) received 170mm of rain, Poladpur (Raigad) 160mm, Mahad (Raigad) 150mm, Karjat (Raigad) 150mm and Colaba (Mumbai) 130mm during the period. Marathwada also recorded heavy spells with Deoni in Latur getting 110mm of rain and Degloor in Nanded 100mm. Mahabaleshwar received 68mm of rainfall between Sunday and Monday morning.

The IMD has forecast light to moderate rain or thundershowers at many places, with isolated heavy rainfall likely over Konkan and Goa, and Madhya Maharashtra from Tuesday to Thursday and over Marathwada on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Among the eight districts of Marathwada, Beed district received a maximum of 37mm of rainfall in the 24 hours ending Monday morning, with 15 revenue circles receiving heavy rainfall of more than 65mm during the same period. Shivkumar Swami, resident deputy collector of Beed, said: "Road connectivity to 36 villages in different parts of the district was lost. An Army helicopter airlifted 24 people from flood-hit villages of Ashti, whereas local teams safely took out another 27 people."

Afroj Bagwan, a 30-year-old from Dhamangao in Ashti taluka, drowned in an overflowing nullah, while 69-year-old Shrawan Shinde, from Ghatpimpalgaon village of the same taluka, died of cardiac arrest during the rescue operation, officials said. Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who is also the guardian minister of Beed, was in contact with the local district administration to assess the rain situation.

In Ahilyanagar, NDRF, local disaster management team volunteers and fire brigade personnel were mobilised to rescue people. People were rescued using boats, human chains, and earth movers, employing whatever means were available. Approximately 10 villages were cut off from the district headquarters in the morning, nine villages were flooded, and rescue operations were conducted in these areas. By evening, everyone trapped in floodwaters, along with those from some other villages in Pathardi, Karjat, and Ahilyanagar talukas, were moved to safe locations, an official said.

District guardian minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said: "The administration has been asked to go full force to ensure the people are provided with relief at the earliest and also to carry out the assessment of rain damage."

In Solapur, authorities increased water discharge from the Ujani dam to 1 lakh cusecs on Monday following incessant rainfall in the catchment. The discharge from the dam, located along the boundaries of Pune and Solapur districts, will cause the water level of the Bhima river, which flows through Solapur district, to rise. The Ujani dam is currently 107.8%.