Over 3,000 people evacuated from flood-hit Bhandara, Chandrapur

More than 3,000 people, including 500 from one village, have been evacuated from Bhandara and Chandrapur districts of Maharashtra's Vidarbha region where several areas got flooded after heavy rains in neighbouring parts of Madhya Pradesh, officials said on Monday.

Bhandara city has been one of the worst affected in east Vidarbha and teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local administration are shifting flood-hit people to safer places, district disaster management officer Abhishek Namdas told PTI.

"In the last two days, 2,830 people have been rescued from Bhandara city," he said.

Flood water is now receding, but rescue operations are still underway, he added.

In Chandrapur, 500 people have been evacuated in the last one day from the flooded Ladaj village, which is surrounded by a river on two sides, district disaster management officer Jitesh Survade said.

Rescue operations are continuously on in six villages of Bramhapuri taluka, with main focus on Ladaj village which is the worst affected, he said.

Four local teams and a team of NDRF are engaged in the rescue operation in Ladaj, he said, adding that one SDRF team will also be coming from Nagpur to help in the rescue work.

Survade said the flooding took place after heavy rains in neighbouring areas of Madhya Pradesh and release of water fromthe Sanjay Sarovar dam there into the Wainganga river.

Besides, water discharged from the Gosikhurd dam also entered these villages, he said.

Water levels of these two dams are now coming down and this would also improve the situation in the flood-affected areas of Chandrapur, he said.