Nine Dead During Rescue Ops in Sangli, Situation 'Critical' in Kolhapur as Maharashtra Battles Floods

Several states in India are battling weather woes after torrential rainfall triggered landslides and floods in states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Odisha. Casualties were reported, villages cut off and normal life came to a standstill. Here's a lowdown on states battling nature’s fury:

1. Nine people died in Maharashtra's Sangli as a boat carrying about 30 capsized during rescue operations. As many as 16 have been rescued, while others remain missing.

2. The India Meteorological Department has forecast heavy rains for the coming 2 to 3 days in the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and in the Konkan region. Central India will see lighter showers from August 10, while rains will continue in the North. Monsoon will set in again on August 20, the IMD predicted.

3. Kerala's Nilambur and Perinthalmanna areas in Malappuram district have flooded due to heavy rainfall in northern districts of the state. Fire brigade teams are conducting rescue operations in the inundated locations. The India Meteorological Department had issued a red alert in three, and orange alert in five Kerala districts.

4. People in Madhya Pradesh's Multai celebrated as the Tapti river overflowed and its gushing waters and entered the Maa Tapti temple after three years.

5. The Indian Coast Guard evacuated more than 150 people from Chikali village Maharashtra's Kolhapur district who were stranded due to flooding. Kolhapur, along with Sangli distict in Maharashtra, was battered by rains over the last few days. As many as one lakh people were affected in Kolhapur district alone.

6. Trains have been cancelled, diverted, and short terminated in several places in Maharashtra. The Central Railway cited waterlogging and landslide in Mumbai and Pune divisions and Miraj-Lond section in Southern railway for several cancellations. Trains from Kolhapur's C Shahumharaj T railway station to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station in Mumbai stand cancelled.

7. A red alert has been issued in the Idukki, Malappuram, and Kozhikode districts of Kerala, and orange alert for Thrissur, Palakkad, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasargod for Thursday. Earlier, a woman had died in Malappuram District when a tree uprooted and fell over her house. Many places in Malappuram are under water and some villages isolated, and heavy crop damage was also reported from various parts of the district.

8. The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) called off protests "on humanitarian grounds until further notice" as floods ravage the state, and in view of the abrogation of Article 370. Doctors across the country have been protesting against the newly passed National Medical Commission Bill, which seeks to replace the allegedly graft-tainted Medical Council of India.

9. The railway parcel service building collapsed in Coimbatore's railway station at 4am on Thursday, killing two people and injuring three. Heavy rains lashed the state, which was earlier reeling under a drought-like situation. On Monday, a flood alert was sounded in areas surrounding the Bhavani river in Tamil Nadu's Mettupalayam as surplus water from the Pilloor reservoir was to be discharged.

10. In Odisha, five people, including two pregnant women and two children, were rescued after a portion of a road was washed away in torrential rain. The villages of Majhiguda and Kenduguda of Khairaput have been cut off. Another road connecting Kashinagar to Kidigan in the Gajapati district was flooded, after which 650 people were evacuated and moved to safer locations.

11. The Uttar Pradesh state government said on Wednesday that at least 14 people have lost their lives in rain-related incidents. Three people died because of lightning strikes in Hardoi, while one died in Gorakhpur. In Gautam Buddh Nagar, four people drowned and one person each died in Bulandshahr and Kanpur. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the deaths and directed district magistrates to provide Rs 4 lakh financial assistance to the relatives of the deceased.