Rains: Indore man who fell into drain found dead; 2 still missing in Maha, MP

The body of a 24-year-old man who was swept away in a swollen drain in Indore was found on Thursday and two others were missing in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra after rains, while the Met office warned of flash floods in Vidarbha, officials said.

Some rivers in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra were flooded after heavy showers and several people from Bhandara and Chandrapur districts were shifted to safer places, they said.

The heavy rains also caused damage to crops and an assessment survey was on, an agriculture department official said.

In Indore city of MP, two persons were swept away in swollen drains following heavy rains on Wednesday and one of them, a 24-year-old man, was found dead on Thursday.

The man, Zakir Khan, accidentally fell into a swollen drain in the Sirpur area on Wednesday afternoon when he was trying to stop other people from entering the water body and was swept away, Chandan Nagar police station in-charge Abhay Nema said.

Twenty-four hours later, Khan's body was found about 150 metres away from the site of the incident, he said.

However, rescuers have not yet traced a woman, identified as Durga Jaiswal (26), who was swept away in a swollen nullah in the Banganga area of Indore in a separate incident on Wednesday night.

"The woman lived in a house close to the nullah and while throwing garbage from the rooftop, she lost balance and fell into the drain," Banganga police station in-charge Rajendra Soni said.

A meteorological department official said the rain intensity has reduced in Indore in the last 24 hours after downpour on Tuesday. The MP's commercial city experienced light rains throughout the day on Thursday. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an orange alert, warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall in Indore and three other divisions of Madhya Pradesh, even as intermittent showers continued to lash large parts of the state.

The IMD warned of heavy to very heavy rainfall ranging from 64.5 mm to 204.4 mm at isolated places of Indore, Ujjain, Narmadapuram and Jabalpur divisions.

The department also issued two yellow alerts. The first one is about likely heavy rainfall ranging from 64.5 mm to 115.5 mm at isolated places in Bhopal and Shahdol divisions and Sheopur, Chhatarpur and Sagar districts.

The second one forecast thunderstorms with lightning strikes at isolated places in the districts of Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Narmadapuram, Shahdol Rewa, Sagar, Chambal and Gwalior divisions.

These alerts are valid till Friday morning, the IMD said In Gondia district of Maharashtra, a sports utility vehicle (SUV) carrying three persons was swept away in a swollen drain at Kidangipaar on Wednesday night, district disaster management officer (DDMO) Rajan Choubey said.

Two persons were rescued, while efforts were on to trace the third person, he said.

In Nagpur, Regional Meteorological Centre scientist Dr Praveen Kumar told PTI that there was a ''moderate risk of flash floods'' in the next 24 hours in a few areas of Vidarbha districts like Nagpur, Amravati, Wardha, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Chandrapur and Yavatmal.

Due to the low pressure system over MP, there are high chances of more rainfall which may cause flash flood conditions, he said.

Following heavy rains in Nagpur, all 16 gates of the Navegaon Khairi dam were opened, causing flooding in the Kanhan river, which choked all the intake well strainers, an official said.

In Chandrapur, some low-lying areas were flooded due to backwaters of the Wardha and Irai rivers.

A disaster management team from Nagpur went to Warora and Bhadravati tehsils in the morning to evacuate people residing near the Wardha river.

Civic officials shifted 332 flood-affected people to safer places, authorities said.

The district administration has already sounded an alert for low-lying villages located near the Wainganga river.

Some roads connecting Rajura, Ballarpur, Bamni, Warora and Wani were cut-off due to the inundation of bridges, officials said.

In Gondia and Bhandara, water entered many houses after heavy rains.

A number of families from Gaurinagar, Sanjaynagar, Pindkepaar in Gondia were shifted to safer places. A pregnant woman was rescued from Dhadri village and taken to the sub-district hospital of Tirora, an official said.

In Bhandara district, the Wainganga river has crossed the danger mark, officials said.

Collector Sandeep Kadam appealed to people to remain cautious and not to venture near the overflowing water bodies.

The administration on Thursday shifted 183 families from Tumsar tehsil in Bhandara to safer places, DDMO Abhishek Naamdas said.

All 33 gates of the Gosikhurd dam were opened to release water, an official said.

In Gadchiroli, 17 traffic routes were affected due to the flooded drains and rivers, authorities said.

From June 1 this year till Thursday, Nagpur received 1,052.8 mm rainfall, Chandrapur-1,022.4 mm, Gadchiroli-1,263 mm, Wardha-990.9 mm, Bhandara-986.5 mm, Gondia-998.8 mm, Yavatmal-777.4 mm, Amravati-642.5 mm, Washim-610.2 mm, Akola- 456.6 mm and Buldhana-442 mm, as per official data.

In Kolhapur, where the rainfall activity has somewhat decreased, the Panchganga river level at Rajaram weir was at 41.7 feet at noon on Thursday, as against the warning level of 39 feet and the danger mark of 43 feet, district disaster management cell officials said.

Four automatic gates of the upstream Radhanagari dam were opened on Wednesday, but due to the decreased rainfall activity on Thursday, only two gates were opened and water was being released at the rate of 4,456 cusec, they said.

In Mumbai, weather remained sunny in some areas on Thursday, while other parts witnessed overcast sky. The IMD has predicted moderate rain in Mumbai and its suburbs with the possibility of heavy rainfall at isolated places in the next 24 hours. It has also forecast occasional strong winds of 40 to 50 kilometre per hour gusting up to 60 kmph.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)