Three swept away as rivers swell in central Gujarat

Vadodara: Three persons in central Gujarat got swept away in the rivers in the past 24 hours. Of them, two persons, who entered Karjan River, got dragged away in the heavy current in the Narmada district on Tuesday, while the third person got swept away in Karad river in Halol taluka of Panchmahal district.
A team of National Disaster Response Force (NRDF) has started searching for these men in the Narmada but were yet to find them.
Pratap Parmar, 42, a resident of Navariya taluka of Panchmahal district had gone to graze buffaloes and while returning home slipped while walking over a check dam and got swept away in the flooded Karad river.
After it was informed about the incident on Monday night, the Halol fire brigade rushed to locate the missing man and were joined by a team of the State Disaster Response Force in their efforts. However, the teams were not able to locate him till Tuesday evening.
The talukas in Narmada received less than two inches of rain in the past 24 hours, while nearly 9,000 persons were shifted to safer areas in Rajpipla taluka during the same period.
Narmada district authorities said that nine gates of Karjan were opened and over 2.5 lakh cusecs of water were released on Tuesday.
The villages situated along the river were kept on alert and the locals were asked to stay away from the river. The three talukas of Dediapada, Sagbara and Garudeshwar were the most affected.
About 21 people got stranded on Karjan riverbank near Rajpipla taluka in Narmada after a sudden surge in water levels, were rescued on Monday night by the National Disaster Response Force in a joint operation with the State Disaster Response Force. The rescue operation was carried out in the darkness without waiting for helicopters looking at the emergency of the situation.
Dediapada in Narmada district received 534mm rainfall in the 24-hour period till 6am on Tuesday, while Tilakwada and Sagbara talukas recorded 508mm and 422mm rainfall, respectively. The firemen in Vadodara carried out a daring rescue operation in Bodeli taluka of Chhota Udepur on Tuesday and rescued about 25 passengers who were struck in a bus that was on the way from Madhya Pradesh to Amreli.
In Vadodara, Padra taluka received over three inches of rain within 12 hours on Tuesday, following which, several low-lying areas were inundated. Dabhoi taluka too received four inches of rain causing the Dhadhar River to flood. Many roads were closed to traffic in the district areas.
Godhra and Jambughoda talukas received heavy rains during the night. Jambughoda taluka received 15.15inch rainfall in the 24 hours ending at 6am Tuesday morning. Of this, seven inches of rain fell between 10pm to midnight on Monday.