Landslide Claims 5 Lives In Maharashtra's Raigad District

Five persons died after a massive landslide at a village in Maharashtra's Raigad district, an official said on Thursday. While 75 persons have been rescued, many are still feared trapped, the official said.

Four NDRF teams are engaged in rescue work, he added. The village has around 50 houses, of which 17 were buried under the landslide, the official said. The landslide followed torrential rains in the area. NDRF personnel recovered one body from the landslide spot, while four bodies were recovered by rescue teams earlier.

The village is six km from Morbe dam, which supplies water to Navi Mumbai. Minister Uday Samant said those rescued have been admitted to a hospital in Navi Mumbai. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde reached the site and spoke to personnel engaged in rescue operations. "This village was not in the list of landslide-prone villages," he told reporters there.

"Our priority now is to rescue those still trapped beneath the rubble," he said. The landslide occurred around 11 pm on Wednesday at Irshalwadi village in Khalapur tehsil, around 80 km from Mumbai, the official said. The village is located near Irshalgad fortress located between Matheran and Panvel.

The fortress is a sister fort to Prabalgad. Irshalwadi is a tribal village inaccessible by pucca road. Chowk village on Mumbai-Pune Highway is the nearest town. The district administration has requested trekkers groups for help in the search and rescue operations. This is the biggest landslide in Maharashtra after the July 30, 2014 landslide at Malin village in Ambegaon tehsil of Pune district.

That massive landslide had swallowed up almost the entire tribal village of around 50 families. The final death toll was 153 when the rescue operation was stopped. Nothing of the old village remains except for its school building.