An 18-year-old boy died and another person went missing after being swept away in flood waters in separate incidents, even as 71 villages were cut off amid heavy rains in Nagpur district on Wednesday, an official said.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a ‘red’ alert for Nagpur and Wardha districts, ‘orange’ alert for Amravati and Yavatmal, and ‘yellow’ alert for Akola, Washim, Buldhana, Chandrapur, Bhandara and Gondia districts of Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region for the day.
Anil Hanumant Panpatte (35), a resident of Borgaon village in Kalmeshwar tehsil, about 40 km from the Nagpur district headquarters, got washed away in a swollen drain around 7.30 am, the official said. Efforts are being made to trace Panpatte, he said.
Around 4 am, Kartik Shivshankar Ladse (18) fell into an overflowing drain in Uppalwadi, about 30 km from here. His body was recovered later, the official said.
According to Superintendent of Police Harssh Poddar, 71 villages in rural Nagpur have been cut off due to heavy rains. Rescue operations are underway with the help of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) to those stranded in affected areas, he said.
Following the IMD’s red alert, predicting heavy rains on Wednesday, the Nagpur district administration had declared a holiday for all schools and colleges on Wednesday, officials said.
Some of the state highways in Nagpur have also been closed for traffic due to the overflowing drains and rivers here following heavy rains over the past few days, according to the District Information Office.
As per the IMD's regional meteorological centre here, Nagpur recorded 172.2 mm rainfall in nine hours between 8.30 pm on Tuesday and 5.30 am and Wednesday.
Nagpur Collector Vipin Itankar had said in an order earlier that parts of the district have been witnessing heavy rains, and the possibility of a flood-like situation could not be ruled out.
Many roads in different talukas of the district have been inundated. To avoid any untoward incident, all schools and colleges in the district have been declared closed on July 9, it said.
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