Rescue teams in India yesterday struggled through thick sludge and debris to reach dozens of submerged homes as the death toll from landslides and accidents caused by torrential monsoon rain rose to 125.
The state of Maharashtra is being hit by the heaviest rain in four decades for the month of July, experts have said.
Downpours lasting several days have severely affected hundreds of thousands of people, while major rivers are in danger of bursting their banks.
Photo: AP
In Taliye, about 180km southeast of the financial capital of Mumbai, the death toll rose to 42 with the recovery of four more bodies after landslides flattened most homes in the village, a senior Maharashtra government official said.
“About 40 people are still trapped. The possibility of rescuing them alive is thin as they’ve been trapped in mud for more than 36 hours,” said the official, who declined to be identified as he is not authorized to talk to the media.
Parts of India’s west coast have received up to 594mm of rain, forcing authorities to move people out of vulnerable areas as they released water from dams about to overflow. The hill station of Mahabaleshwar recorded its highest ever rainfall: 60cm in 24 hours.
Rescuers were searching for victims of landslides in four other places in the state, the official said.
“Around 90,000 people were rescued from flood-affected areas,” the Maharashtra government said in a statement, as authorities released water from overflowing dams.
Thousands of trucks were stuck for more than 24 hours on a highway linking Mumbai with the southern technology hub of Bengaluru, with the road submerged in some places.
In the southern state of Telangana, heavy rain caused flooding in the state capital of Hyderabad and other low-lying areas.
Indian environmentalists have said that climate change and indiscriminate construction in fragile coastal regions could lead to more disasters.
“The rain fury that lashed Mahabaleshwar ... is a strong warning against any more tampering with the ecologically fragile Western Ghats,” environment economist Devendra Sharma wrote on Twitter, referring to the range of hills along India’s west coast.
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