Around 110 people stranded due to floods in Mahagaon tehsil of eastern Maharashtra's Yavatmal district were rescued on Saturday, officials said. Besides the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), an Mi-17 V5 chopper of the Indian Air Force was also pressed into service for the rescue operation at Anandnagar Tanda village, district collector Amol Yedge told PTI. The SDRF shifted the stranded people to safe places and the rescue operation was over, he added. The district, around 150 km from Nagpur, has been receiving heavy rains since Friday.
Earlier, Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had tweeted that two IAF choppers had left from Nagpur for rescue operations, but a defence spokesperson said only one chopper was pressed into service. The Mahagaon tehsil recorded 231 mm rainfall from midnight till Saturday morning while the district recorded 117.5 mm rainfall, said collector Amol Yedge. The Painganga river which flows through the district is in flood. Some roads in Yavatmal city were also flooded and people in the affected areas were moved to safer places, the collector said. Around 140 people were shifted to safer places at Kasergaon village in Sangrampur tehsil of Buldhana district too.