For Pratibha Nilesh Kondhalkar, it was like a bolt from the blue when she heard a loud sound and ran out of her house along with her six-year-old daughter after heavy rains pounded Taliye village in Maharashtra’s Raigad district a few days back. She later got to know it was a landslide, which flattened 32 houses in the village and claimed several lives.
“My father, mother and other relatives died in the landslide,” the distraught woman told PTI on Sunday. The woman said she had recently come from an adjoining village to stay with her parents in Taliye, the site of the deadliest landslide following heavy rains in Maharashtra. So far, 42 bodies have been found following the landslide in Taliye on Thursday, while 42 others are still missing.
The deceased included 17 women, as per the district administration. Another local Baban Sakpal said he also heard a loud sound and after some people said there was a landslide, he ran out of his house along with his three children. Sakpal now thanks God for his family having survived the tragedy. According to some locals, 10 children who were enrolled in a pre-primary school and 12 of a high school in Taliye village of Mahad taluka also died in the landslide. “The school building is safe, but now there is no student left to come to the school,” a local villager said.
Amol Kondhalkar, who works in an armed force, said his father, mother and wife are missing following the landslide in Taliye village. “I arrived here yesterday after getting news of the incident and have been searching for my family members,” he said. In Hirkaniwadi village, located near the Raigad Fort, around l00 houses developed cracks after a landslide there on Saturday, as per the district administration.
Besides, a landslide was reported in Ambemachi village in Mahad taluka of Raigad on Saturday, following which 87 villagers were safely rescued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). Following the heavy showers and landslides, the Mahad taluka has been facing shortage of drinking water. Some social groups are sending essential items to the affected places.
The rain intensity has now reduced in the area, according to the district administration. As landslides proved fatal in many parts of the state, the government would come up with a plan to permanently relocate people living in hilly areas, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray told reporters in Taliye village on Saturday.
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