10 die during rescue in Sangli, floods in western Maharashtra still grim

KOLHAPUR: Ten people lost their lives when a rescue boat operated by the gram panchayat capsized in the flooded Brahmanal village in Sangli district on Thursday afternoon. A team of the district administration and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team managed to rescue most other occupants of the boat but three people, who are still missing, are feared dead.
Thirty villagers, none of them wearing life jackets, were on the boat which has a carrying capacity of 17. A woman and her two-month-old child besides two children aged 4 and 5 were among the deceased. The water current and gusty winds were posing difficulties in the search for the missing villagers.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the relatives of those who died in the capsize.
Floods in western Maharashtra have claimed 27 lives till now and two lakh people have been rescued. Though the intensity of the rains reduced in most parts of the region on Thursday, the flood situation in Sangli and Kolhapur districts continued to be grim.
In Kolhapur, the Panchaganga river was flowing at 53.9 feet on Thursday, still 10 feet above the danger level. The Radhanagari dam catchment area recorded 90mm rain until 6pm on Thursday and the dam was discharging water at the rate of 13,112 cusecs. Roads in Kolhapur city, which have been completely submerged for the past three days, showed signs of the water receding.
The Karnataka government's decision to increase discharge from the Almatti dam to 5 lakh cusecs, after Fadnavis spoke to his counterpart in the neighbouring state, B S Yeddiyurappa, is expected to ease the flood situation in Sangli and Kolhapur. The water release from the Koyna dam was also brought down to 77,158 cusecs as against more than 1 lakh cusecs on Wednesday.
10 drown as rescue boat capsizes in Sangli, search continues for 3 others
Brahmanal village, located near the confluence of the flooded Krishna river and its tributary Yerla, was marooned for two days. Sandip Rajoba, a local farmers' leader, alleged that no heed was paid to the village administration's demand for additional boats two days ago.
On Thursday, the canoe-shaped motor boat provided to the gram panchayat by Sangli zilla parishad after the 2005 floods came to their rescue. Minutes after about 30 villagers had boarded the small boat to cross the river, it capsized.
Villagers told TOI that the boat's propeller got entangled in the broken branches and leaves floating in the flood waters. "There was sudden jerk and the boat overturned in just a few seconds. It was very close to the river bank. There were over 30 in the boat," they said.
Abhimanyu Mandale, who along with six others rescued people and recovered dead bodies, said they heard loud screams and calls for help. "We rushed to the river bank and saw people struggling to stay afloat. We reached to the boat in a kahili (large metal vessel) and managed to save 15 people. Three are still missing," he said.
The rescued villagers were to be taken to the Khatav village, located on the other bank of the river. Anupam Srivastav, commandant of the 5th battalion of the NDRF at Talegaon near Pune, told TOI, "Our personnel operating in Sangli said the boat was of a conical shape, which usually is not effective in the high current waters. Moreover, no life jackets were provided to the people on the boat. This is a standard operating procedure during such rescue efforts," he said.