- More than 160 people were killed in floods in India.
- The authorities are digging the rubble to find the trapped people.
- The rain on the west coast is weakening.
On Monday, Indian rescue teams were digging thick silt and debris and found that more than 60 people were trapped in landslides caused by monsoon rains. To date, these landslides have claimed more than 160 lives for four days.
Read | Heavy rains in India caused floods and landslides at least 112 people died
The western states of Maharashtra and Goa, as well as the southern states of Karnataka and Telangana were the most affected by heavy rains, which flooded thousands of hectares of farmland and forced the authorities to move more than 230,000 people to safer places. place.
The state government said in a statement that in Maharashtra, 149 people have died mainly from landslides and other monsoon-related accidents, and another 64 people are still missing.
“We are working hard to rescue people trapped under the debris of the landslides in Raigad and Satara, but there is little chance of them being evacuated alive. They have been trapped in the mud for more than three days,” said a senior state government official. Refers to two severely affected areas.
Officials said rescuers were unable to reach the affected villages quickly because of river flooding and landslides cutting off the road.
Vacation destination
Authorities said that in Karnataka and Telangana, more than a dozen people were killed by floods, but the main rivers of Krishna and Godavari are receding.
The state’s chief minister, Pramod Sawant, said that hundreds of houses were damaged in Goa, a popular tourist destination on the west coast, and the state recorded its worst flooding in nearly four years.
A senior scientist at the Indian Meteorological Service in Pune said that rainfall on the west coast is weakening, which will help rescue operations.
“This week, there will also be rain on the west coast, but the intensity will be much lower than last week,” he said.
Last week, the rainfall in parts of India’s west coast was as high as 594 mm in 24 hours, forcing the authorities to evacuate people from vulnerable areas because they released water from dams that might overflow.
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