Shrutika Patil, Pune
16 people were killed and 127 others are feared trapped under the debris after a landslide hit Irsalwadi, a tribal hamlet in Maharashtra’s Raigad district late on Wednesday night. Over the previous 24 hours, the region has been inundated by rain.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has declared a Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia for the family of those killed in the terrible incident. He also stated that the Maharashtra government will cover the cost of the injured’s treatment. Shinde also stated that the landslide-affected village was not on the state’s list of landside-prone localities. The settlement has a total population of 228. Among them, 70 residents remained unharmed. The MGM Hospital in Panvel has admitted six of the 21 injured people.
“The incident occurred at 10.30 in the night at a place adjoining Irsalgad in Raigad district. It is a very remote inaccessible area which is hampering rescue attempts. More people are feared to be trapped and NDRF and district administration is making attempts to rescue people,” according to Minister Samant, who is on-site supervising rescue operations.
According to the NDRF, 15 to 20 homes were buried under the rubble after the landslide. “Seventeen of the village’s 40 total residences have been impacted. Four teams have been sent out to carry out the rescue efforts. Some locations have debris that is 10 to 29 feet deep. Heavy equipment is challenging to get to this location. The distance to the location is 2.8 km, and we must manually clear the debris, which will probably take a long time. Even if we are having trouble, we will keep working till we find every single individual”, said S B Singh, commandant of the NDRF’s fifth unit. Due to heavy rain, bad visibility, and the risk of further landslides in the dark, the rescue operation has been suspended with the approval of the local administration and will resume Friday morning.
The district had been placed on orange alert for the past two days due to heavy rains, with more on the way. Due to high to extremely heavy rain forecasts, the State Disaster Management Authority has declared a holiday for schools in Raigad district on July 20.