NDRF personnel recover the body of a landslide victim in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra.
The death toll in flood-hit areas of Maharashtra rose from 149 to 192 on Monday, with another 25 people still missing, the State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) said.
In the biggest flood rescue operation in decades in the state, 375,178 people have been shifted to safer places after their houses were submerged in flood waters, which in some places were as high as 20 feet.
The largest evacuations were from western Maharashtra districts – Sangli (206,619), Kolhapur (150,365), Satara (7,530), followed by Konkan districts – Thane (6,930), Sindhudurg (1,271), Ratnagiri (1,200), and Raigad (1,000). . SDMA said, and most have been kept in 259 relief camps.
48 injured people are undergoing treatment at various hospitals in Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Sangli, Satara and Kolhapur, while some victims of hill-slide in Raigad have been admitted to specialized hospitals in Mumbai.
On the third day of his tour of the devastated areas, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray boarded a helicopter for Kolhapur and Satara, but was forced to cut short his journey and return to Pune.
A CMO official said that once again the heavy rains in the area reduced visibility due to which the helicopter did not land at the Koyna helipad.
Nevertheless, Thackeray discussed the situation with district officials and ordered that emergency relief work should be carried out immediately with the provision of food, water, medicine and clothing to the affected people, with 1,028 villages directly affected by the tragedy. are.
“So far the flood waters have not receded. Bad weather conditions are also prevailing. But the relief work should be done with all precautions,” he told the officials.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar visited flood-ravaged Sangli, where he boarded an NDRF boat to survey some of the worst-hit areas of the city, which are still submerged in several feet of water.
Pawar, accompanied by ministers Jayant Patil, Vijay Wadettiwar and Vishwajit Kadam, said in the next few days the chief minister would make an official announcement on the relief package and other measures for the flood-affected areas.
State Energy Minister Nitin Raut embarked on his visit to Raigad and announced that efforts were on on a war footing to restore power supply in the affected districts.
An official said that after five days of flood havoc, the Raigad administration officially called off the rescue operation by NDRF, SDRF and other agencies and would still follow proper procedures to declare the missing people dead.
An SDMA official said that though rescue operations would continue in other districts, people would be rescued, food or medicine and other aid materials would be delivered to the victims.
A total of 33 teams of NDRF, 131 boats and 3 Indian Army teams are still in the field, helping flood-affected people and even animals wherever possible.
Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari will visit Raigad and Ratnagiri districts to take stock of the situation, a Raj Bhavan official said.
In the last 5 days, many parts of the western and coastal regions received unprecedented record rainfall, resulting in over a dozen hills and landslides in various districts, with a huge human toll.
With most major and minor rivers, dams, reservoirs, lakes overflowing and excess water overflowing, villages, towns and cities were flooded and many roads in the areas are still closed for inter-district and inter-state vehicular movement . , particularly affecting fuel and food supplies.
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