Drought-prone Marathwada Witnesses Torrential Rains, At Least 10 Dead

Mumbai: At least 10 people have died in Maharashtra’s drought-prone Marathwada region due to floods. Kharif crops including cotton, soybean, maize and tur (pigeon pea) have been damaged on 11 lakh hectares. According to officials, 523 cattle have been killed and 3,487 villages have been affected due the heavy rains.

A senior official said that Marathwada witnessed incessant rains from September 1. It has affected 11,67,270.12 hectares of agricultural land including non-irrigated 11,31,321 hectares and 16,225 hectares of irrigated lands. “Around 3,500 villages and 14,62,870 farmers have been badly affected by the flood like situation in Marathwada region,” he said.

The official further informed that Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (formerly known as Aurangabad) district witnessed the highest number of the casualties, followed by Hingoli district. “Of the total casualties, five have been reported in Aurangabad, two in Hingoli and one each in Latur, Beed and Jalna districts,” he said.

According to the Disaster Management Unit (DMU), Marathwada, which has eight districts and 483 revenue circles, received more than 100 mm rainfall in the last 48 hours, causing sudden increase in water level in major rivers and rivulets including Godavari, Purna, Dudhana and Shivana. This has affected the lives of the people in several districts as villages were cut off from main roads and district headquarters. Flood waters deluged residential areas in the districts.

In the worst affected Hingoli district, the Army has been called to rescue stranded people.

Residential areas and farmlands near rivers were submerged, prompting local administration to launch rescue operations and evacuate residents to safer locations. Officials said that teams of SDRF (State Disaster Relief Force) were deployed in Nanded, Hingoli and Parbhani districts for rescue work. More than 5,000 people have been shifted to safe places in affected districts.

Aurangabad Divisional Commissioner Dilip Gawade told this newspaper, “The situation is under control as the rainfall has stopped today. We have been helping out the distressed people. We have now started doing panchnama of the damaged crops in order to provide assistance to the farmers at the earliest.”