Maharashtra rains: Five dead, many feared trapped after landslide at village in Raigad district

Pic/NDRF

Five persons died after a massive landslide at a village in Maharashtra's Raigad district, an official told news agency on Thursday.

While 75 persons have been rescued, many are still feared trapped, the official said. Four NDRF teams are engaged in rescue work, he added.

The village has around 50 houses, of which 17 were buried under the landslide, the official said. The landslide followed torrential rains in the area.

NDRF personnel recovered one body from the landslide spot, while four bodies were recovered by rescue teams earlier.

The village is six km from Morbe dam, which supplies water to Navi Mumbai.

Minister Uday Samant said those rescued have been admitted to a hospital in Navi Mumbai.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde reached the site and spoke to personnel engaged in rescue operations. "This village was not in the list of landslide-prone villages," he told reporters there.

"Our priority now is to rescue those still trapped beneath the rubble," he said.

The landslide occurred around 11 pm on Wednesday at Irshalwadi village in Khalapur tehsil, around 80 km from Mumbai, the official told PTI.

The village is located near Irshalgad fortress located between Matheran and Panvel. The fortress is a sister fort to Prabalgad.

Irshalwadi is a tribal village inaccessible by pucca road. Chowk village on Mumbai-Pune Highway is the nearest town.

The district administration has requested trekkers groups for help in the search and rescue operations.

This is the biggest landslide in Maharashtra after the July 30, 2014 landslide at Malin village in Ambegaon tehsil of Pune district.

That massive landslide had swallowed up almost the entire tribal village of around 50 families. The final death toll was 153 when the rescue operation was stopped. Nothing of the old village remains except for its school building.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra education department on Wednesday asked its officials in Thane, Palghar and Raigad to declare a holiday for educational institutions only after proper discussion with district collectors.

The direction came on a day when the state government declared a holiday for all schools in four districts for Thursday (July 20) amid a heavy rainfall warning in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

Sandeep Sangave, Deputy Director of Education (Mumbai division), in an order said he has asked department officers, education inspectors and others concerned to announce holiday based on local conditions.

A decision on declaring holidays should be taken after discussing the issue with respective district collectors, he said in the order.

Yesterday, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde declared a holiday for all schools in Mumbai, Thane, Raigad, and Palghar districts for Thursday amid a heavy rainfall warning in the MMR.

The metropolis and its three adjoining districts were lashed by heavy showers overnight and throughout the day on Wednesday.

Heavy rains lashed parts of Mumbai amid an orange alert on Wednesday, leading to disruption of local train services beyond Kalyan in the adjoining Thane district, diversion of some express trains and cancellation of a few services between Mumbai and Pune.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde claimed though Mumbai has 110 low-lying areas there was no waterlogging in the city and traffic remained smooth.

The chief minister visited the disaster management cell in Mantralaya to review the flood situation in the state and directed officials to be on alert mode.

He was apprised of floods due to heavy rains in some areas in Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhdurg, Pune, Satara and Gadchiroli districts.

(With inputs from PTI)