Rainfall likely to increase over north Indian plains, hills from today, reduce over west coast

In a much-needed relief to rain-battered Maharashtra and Goa, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday said rainfall activity is expected to reduce over the west coast, even as it issued an orange alert for 24 Madhya Pradesh districts. The death toll from the torrential rains that battered Maharashtra’s Pune and Konkan divisions over the last three days and triggered landslides in some areas rose to 112 on Saturday, including 52 in the coastal Raigad district alone, the government said. In addition, nine people have died and three are missing in Karnataka as heavy downpour led to a flood-like situation and landslides in the state, and five people were killed and 18 injured in four incidents of lightning strikes in Madhya Pradesh. The IMD, meanwhile, said Gujarat is very likely to witness an “active wet spell” till July 27, with the likelihood of light to moderate rainfall at several places and isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall. In Goa, traffic on the South Western Railway (SWR) route continues to remain affected for the second consecutive day on Saturday, a day after two landslides occurred on the Goa-Karnataka border, besides the derailment of a train in the section. Up north, the mercury hovered near normal limits in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, while parts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan saw light to moderate rainfall during the day. The national capital recorded a maximum temperature of 36 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal, and a minimum of 27.3 degrees Celsius. Relative humidity oscillated between 83 per cent and 71 per cent in the city. The weather department has predicted generally cloudy skies with light rain or drizzle on Sunday. It has issued an orange alert for July 26. Light to moderate rainfall and thundershowers occurred at a few places in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, with heavy downpour at isolated places in the eastern part of the state. The Met said rainfall and thundershowers are very likely at a few places in the state on Sunday with heavy downpour at isolated places in the western part. There was light to moderate rainfall at many places in Rajasthan too, and widespread downpour is expected in the eastern part of the state till July 27. The Jaipur weather office said Pirawa in Jhalawar recorded extremely heavy rainfall of 21 cm in a 24-hour period ending Saturday morning. Pipalda (Kota) and Malsisar (Jhunjhunu) received 8 cm downpour each during the same span of time, it said. In Punjab and Haryana, the maximum temperatures stayed close to normal even as a few places received rainfall. Ambala in Haryana recorded a maximum temperature of 37.4 degrees Celsius, Hisar 37.3 degrees Celsius and Gurgaon 36.5 degrees Celsius. Common capital Chandigarh recorded a high of 36.2 degrees Celsius, two notches above normal. In Punjab, Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala recorded their maximums at 35.6, 36.3 and 36.3 degrees Celsius respectively. Karnal, Rohtak and Amritsar received 7 mm, 0.2 mm and 10 mm rainfall respectively. In its forecast, the IMD said rainfall activity will increase over the north Indian plains and hills from July 25. “Fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy falls (are) likely over Uttarakhand during July 25-28; Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and West Uttar Pradesh during July 26-28, and Punjab and east Uttar Pradesh on July 27 and 28,” it said, adding isolated extremely heavy falls are also likely over Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand on July 27 and 28. “Further reduction in rainfall intensity is very likely along the west coast, including Konkan, Goa and adjoining interior Maharashtra, during the next 24 hours,” the IMD added. In Maharashtra, 1,35,313 people have been shifted to safer places, including 78,111 in Sangli district, followed by 40,882 in Kolhapur district. The Krishna river in Sangli and Panchganga in Kolhapur are in flood though the rains have subsided, officials said. Forty-one bodies have been recovered at Taliye village in Raigad where a landslide struck on Thursday. Several others are still missing, a top police official said. Between July 21 and 24, Raigad district reported 52 deaths, followed by Ratnagiri (21), Satara (13) and Thane (12). Kolhapur reported seven deaths, Mumbai four, Sindhudurg two and Pune one, the state government said. A total of 99 people are missing in these areas, including 53 in Raigad, 27 in Satara, 14 in Ratnagiri, three in Thane and one each in Sindhudurg and Kolhapur. At least 53 people were injured in rain-related incidents. In Satara district, at least 13 bodies have been recovered from the sites of landslide at Ambeghar and Dhokawale villages. The landslides had occurred on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday. In Karnataka, 31,360 people have been evacuated from low-lying areas, while 22,417 people are taking shelter in 237 relief camps. According to data shared by the State Disaster Management Authority, 283 villages in 45 taluks have been lashed by rains, affecting a population of 36,498. Among the deaths reported since July 22, four are from Uttara Kannada district, two from Belagavi and one each from Chikkamagaluru, Dharwad and Kodagu. In Madhya Pradesh, the IMD said heavy to very heavy rainfall and thunderstorms with lightning might occur in isolated places in Jabalpur, Rewa, Satna, Anuppur, Umarai, Dindori, Katni, Narsinghpur, Mandla, Sagar, Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh, Vidisha and Sehore, Rajgarh, Betul, Burhanpur, Khandwa, Khargone, Dhar, Dewas, Agar Malwa, Ashok Nagar and Shivpuri districts.