Rain fury in Maharashtra: At least 17 dead, 560 people rescued

At least 17 people were killed in Maharashtra due to heavy rain which triggered flood, thunderstorms and lightning strikes in the past two days. The brunt of the rain fury was primarily borne by the Marathwada region. According to disaster management officials familiar with the matter cited by the PTI news agency, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has so far rescued more than 560 people. However, more than 200 cattle were washed away in the rain while a number of houses ended up severely damaged.

Officials, cited by the report, said the local administration opened all 18 gates of the Manjara dam and 11 gates of Majalgaon dam in the early hours of Tuesday, releasing 78,397 cusecs and 80,534 cusecs of water from these respective catchments.

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Parts of Mumbai also received heavy rainfall on Tuesday; the forecast by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicted “extremely heavy rainfall” over Marathwada, Mumbai, and the coastal Konkan region over the next 24 hours. Marathwada is an area in central Maharashtra, which now lay devastated due to the torrential downpour; eight other districts – Aurangabad, Latur, Osmanabad, Parbhani, Nanded, Beed, Jalna, and Hingoli have also witnessed heavy rainfall.

The office of the divisional commissioner informed that 180 circles of these eight districts recorded more than 65mm of rain. The water discharged from the dams, in turn, flooded villages along the Manjara river in the Beed and Latur districts. A press release issued by the commissioner's office said that of the people who were killed in the rain-related incidents, 12 were from the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions while one was from the Nashik district in northern Maharashtra.

While 25 out of 40 people left stranded on the banks of the Manjara river at Sarsa village have been rescued using boats, efforts were on to get the rest 15 to safety, an official said. He added that three people stranded on a river basin in the Digol Deshmukh area in Renapur tehsil have been also rescued. Three employees of the state Irrigation Department were stuck in the Ghansargaon village barrage, and an NDRF team, as well as a helicopter, have been brought in help local personnel with the rescue effort, said district disaster management officer Sakeb Usmani.