Madhya Pradesh floods: The man had gone fishing when the river’s water level rose and he was marooned.
Bhopal:
A young man, who was trapped for over 24 hours in the waters released from a dam in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhindwara district, has been airlifted to safety by a team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
The man, identified as Belkheda villager Madhu Kahar, had spent the night clinging onto a tree he climbed after the water level in Pench river rose sharply.
Mr Kahar had gone fishing with his friends, but was marooned on an island when the gates of Machagora dam were opened after intense rainfall in its catchment area. His friends managed to escape.
#WATCH NDRF rescues youth trapped for 24 hours in waters released from the Machagora dam in Belkheda village of the Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh. pic.twitter.com/hhLqew9lQy
— ANI (@ANI) August 29, 2020
Large parts of Madhya Pradesh have been experiencing heavy rainfall since last week, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issuing a red for extremely heavy rainfall in the next 24 hours for six of its districts amid incessant downpour in Narsinghpur, Chhindwara, Seoni, Balaghat, Betul and Hoshangabad.
The IMD has also issued an orange alert for 10 districts, including Jabalpur.
According to the weather department, these showers are due to a well-marked low pressure area over east Madhya Pradesh, in addition to the passing of the monsoon trough over north-central parts of the state.
These weather systems would result in fairly widespread rainfall over large parts of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, the Konkan belt, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, the IMD has said.
“Fairly widespread rainfall, with isolated heavy falls and thunderstorm and lightning very likely over Northwest India and Western Himalayan Region during 01st-02nd September, 2020,” the IMD tweeted.
With most rivers, including Narmada and its tributaries, in spate Chief Minister Shivarj Singh held a high-level meeting this morning and instructed the state administration and rescue officials to be on alert for flood-related relief work.
