Aditya Hore
AHMEDABAD, August 31: Amidst the Corona pandemic havoc, several Indian states, particularly Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, are facing major problem of floods and heavy rains for the last fortnight or so and the weather predictions for the coming days show no silver lining.
A landslide and floods caused by heavy rains have killed at least 41 people in Nepal and India in the past week, officials said on Monday, as the annual monsoon season enters its final stretch after claiming hundreds of lives in South Asia.
In Gujarat, 14 people have died in the last two days in various incidents related to heavy rains and flooding, said officials at the State Emergency Response Centre.
Moreover, rains in Gujarat are 10% higher than the long-period average, according to the local authorities. The state’s desert area of Kutch received rainfall that was 3-1/2 times higher than the average.
Around 1,750 people were evacuated and 225 roads including 12 state highways were closed about two weeks back. Several of the highways and innumerable village approach roads have still remained blocked causing immense hardships to the people. Thirteen National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have been deployed across Gujarat for relief and rescue operations as the regional weather forecasting centre predicted more widespread rainfall during the next few days.
Monsoon was vigorous over South Gujarat, especially the entire Surat district with Mangrol taluka recording the highest of 7.40-inch rainfall in just 10 hours from 6 am to and 4 pm on Sunday followed by Umarpada (6.9 inch), Kamrej taluka (5 inch) and Surat city (4.17 inch).
At least three fishing boats caught in the rough seas capsized off Porbandar coast, Jivan Jungi, a fisherman leader of Porbandar, said. Wreckages of Radheshwari, one of the three fishing boats, were found on Advana coast, around eight km south of Porbadar.
Sources in the flood control department said in addition to increasing water level in Tapi river, the level in four of the five creeks in Surat were flowing above the danger level flooding several low-ling areas including Limbayat, Bamroli, Simada, Godadara, Sarthana and Parvat Patia from where the creeks pass and many areas in the diamond city, rain and flood waters entered shops and houses forcing inhabitants to move to safer places.
Other major cities in Gujarat including Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Rajkot are also facing the problems of water loggings. Gujarat farmers have been worst hit by the floods as the crops and farms have turned into veritable water pools.
In Madhya Pradesh, very heavy rains continued to batter most parts of the central state including the capital city of Bhopal. Several districts, especially those in the Narmada river belt, are facing flood-like situation.
The Regional Meteorological Centre issued a red alert for districts of Chhindwara, Vidisha, Sehore, Rajgarh, Shajapur and Agar while 18 districts including Bhopal and Indore are on a yellow alert.
Army has been called out to conduct rescue operations in the worst-hit Hoshangabad district on the banks of Narmada river. Also, two units of the NDRF had been sent out to the district and helicopters are being pressed into service for rescue and relief works wherever necessary.
Road connectivity has been hit in several places in the state and connection of capital Bhopal with Sagar and Jabalpur districts was cut off due to submergence of bridges and culverts over rivers and local streams.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who held an emergency meeting over the developing flood situation, also conducted an aerial survey of the affected areas in Hoshangabad and Sehore districts along Narmada banks on Monday. Later he told the media persons, “People need not panic. All actions related to relief, rescue and safety of people will be taken up wherever necessary. NDRF teams are active in affected places and more teams are being sent wherever necessary. We have also put the army on alert and assistance of the Air Force will also be taken if necessary.”
Chouhan said other arrangements like helicopters, boats and divers had been made. The CM appealed to the people not to take undue risks and not to go near the water bodies for merriment while underlining that the administration would be alerting people before opening the gates of various dams to release excess water.
Due to the continuing heavy rainfall during the past five days, most of the reservoirs in the state neared their full capacity. As many as 120 out of 251 reservoirs are full beyond 90% of capacity requiring dam gates to be opened to let out excess water creating a flood-like situation in the downstream areas.
All the 13 gates of Tawa Dam, 22 gates of Indira Sagar Dam, 21 out of 23 gates of Omkareshwar Dam, 14 out of 18 gates of Rajghat Dam, 17 out of 21 of Bargi Dam have been opened. Gates of Mandla and Pench dams have also been opened and water in the Sardar Sarovar reservoir on the Narmada in the downstream in Gujarat was just about seven metres below the full reservoir level, a Gujarat government communiqué said.
About 150 persons were shifted to safety in Belkheda of Chhindwara. A youth was rescued using a helicopter. In Rahatgarh of Sagar too, families were shifted out to camps.
In the capital Bhopal too, with Upper Lake full and gates of Bhadbhada Dam opened, water started gushing into low-lying areas. Also, Kaliyasote and Kerwa reservoirs are full, requiring shifting of people from low-lying areas.
As on Saturday, 20 out of 51 districts in the state had received excess rainfall. Save for Mandsaur, all other districts have received normal rainfall, data released by the RMC shows.
Overall, the state has received 815.2mm of rainfall till Saturday morning against the expected rain of 743mm—a 10 per cent excess.
Bhopal has received 1022.7mm of rain till now against average of 771.5mm rain—the excess being 33 per cent. Indore with 828mm against expected 632mm of rain has received 31 per cent excess. The highest excess at 40 per cent has been received by Chhindwara district.
In the eastern state of Odisha, floods have killed at least 17 people in the past week and displaced thousands of people. About half-a-million people in the state had been adversely affected by the heavy rains and floods, officials said.
Hundreds of people have also died in the north-eastern state of Assam as well as the neighboruing Bangladesh in the current monsoon, official sources said.