Maharashtra: 16 killed, 100 missing as rain-triggered landslide buries hamlet in Maharashtra | India News
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Four teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)’s 5th battalion from Pune headed by its commanding officer S B Singh are leading the rescue operation along with other relief agencies at the site, which is not accessible by a motorable road. NDRF teams rescued 21 villagers and some livestock including a bullock. Karjat sub divisional officer Ajit Nairale said, “Houses of 18 families were damaged and seven others partly.” An incessant downpour slowed down rescue work and prevented excavators from being transported to the hilly site.
Singh said, “The rescue operation was called off on Thursday evening and will restart on Friday morning. There is no landing possibility to airlift excavation machinery using Air Force aircraft, given the hill terrain and bad weather…there is little chance of survival of the victims, whoever are trapped. The exact number of trapped persons still remains unclear.”
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Tragic landslide in Maharashtra’s Raigad: 5 dead, several trapped, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde reaches spot
The hilly settlement near Karjat consisted of 48 Thakur households dependent on agriculture, livestock and farm work. Officials said 88 villagers are believed to have survived.
Chief minister Eknath Shinde rushed to the site and later walked up to the landslide-hit zone to take stock. He said the administration was trying to trace all those missing; some of the children from the village were at residential schools while others were out for work. He announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh for the next of kin of the deceased and asked for shelters to be arranged for the survivors.
Located 80 km away from Mumbai at the foothills of Irshalgad fort, Irshalwadi is a far-flung settlement in Khalapur tehsil near Karjat. Motorised vehicles such as JCBs and cranes could not immediately reach the disaster site. Scores of workers from industrial units in the region were employed to dig through the earth and debris in order to find victims, all of whom are believed to have been asleep at the time of the landslide that occurred a little after 10.30 pm.
CM Shinde said some of the injured were being treated at the MGM Hospital at Kamothe in Navi Mumbai. He said all efforts are being made for the rescue, relief and rehabilitation of the affected families. The CM said 50-60 containers had been arranged for the survivors as temporary shelters and there was a plan to move them to a safer place. The containers started reaching the Namarachi Wadi in addition to the tents already installed there.
Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said the area received 499 mm rainfall between July 17 and 19. However, Irshalwadi was not listed as a landslide-prone area nor had the region experienced any landslides or rock-falls in the past. “The Geological Survey of India had not listed this area as landslide prone. Also, in the past there had been no incidents of landslides or rock-falls in this area,” Fadnavis said. He said 48 families comprising 288 tribals lived in the area.
Fadnavis, while making an statement in the assembly on the Irshalgad landslide tragedy, said the crucial machines that were to be taken to the spot in a helicopter (for cutting collapsed houses and evacuating people from the debris) had still not reached the spot due to bad weather conditions and incessant rains. This has hindered the search operations, he added.
However, he said a force of 500 rescuers in addition to an earlier batch of 500 has been sent from CIDCO. “People are on the spot and are ready for further operations,” he added.
Watch Massive landslide in Maharashtra’s Raigad: Several rescued, many feared trapped
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