The Indian Air Force as well as the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) is engaged in rescue work in a village in Mahagaon tehsil of eastern Maharashtra's Yavatmal district on Saturday evening. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis informed in a tweet that 45 people were stranded in Anandnagar Tanda village of Mahagaon tehsil. The district is around 150 km from Nagpur and has been receiving heavy rains since Friday morning, leading to flooding in many areas and prompting the evacuation measures.
Two helicopters of the Indian Air Force reached the spot to take part in the rescue operation, news agency PTI reported officials as saying.
Visuals of the rescue operation surfaced on social media showing an Indian Air Force chopper deployed at the spot.
"Rescue operation was going on since morning. 32 people have been rescued for now from the Anand Nagar area. All of them have been shifted to the safe area," Vinayak Kote, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Yavatmal, told news agency ANI.
Deputy CM Fadnavis took to Twitter and informed: "According to the information received from the Yavatmal district administration, all the 110 citizens trapped in Anandnagar Tanda in Mahagaon taluka have been evacuated and shifted to a safe place. The team completed the mission with the help of boats under the supervision of the Indian Air Force #SDRF . Congratulations to the entire team."
According to PTI, the Mahagaon tehsil recorded 231 mm of rainfall from midnight till Saturday morning while the district recorded 117.5 mm of rainfall, said collector Amol Yedge.
The Painganga river which flows through the district is overflowing. Some roads in Yavatmal city were also flooded and people in the affected areas were moved to safer places, the collector informed.
Around 140 people were shifted to safer places at Kasergaon village in Sangrampur tehsil of Buldhana district as well.
The Regional Meteorological Centre in Nagpur has predicted thunderstorms with lightning and heavy to heavy rainfall in isolated places in Yavatmal, Gadchiroli, Amravati, and Washim districts in Vidarbha on Saturday.