Wednesday night was like any other night for Irshalwadi villagers. Heavy rain, thick fog, no electricity. But the dark night turned darker at 10.30 pm when a massive landslide struck the village in Raigad district, burying more than 85% of it under stones and sludge. The death toll has reached 22.
The first distress call came from a group of young boys who were playing PUBG in a community centre of the area. They called up a grocery store at the base of their village. Soon, word spread and people from Chauk village as well as those from the base village rushed up. They were met with the devastation caused by the landslide. Most of the village was turned to dust and around 75 survivors were rescued and taken to safety in villages down the hill.
“We all reached around midnight. We could hear cries for help. Most of those trapped were children. We started helping them around midnight, but it was pitch dark and raining, making it difficult for us to help them. Even the NDRF team had reached overnight,” said a Chauk resident.
Irshalwadi village in Khalapur tehsil is around 80 km from Mumbai.
On Day 2 of rescue operations, four NDRF teams were working at the spot. The total population of the village is estimated to be 248 people, of whom 22 have died. A total of 75 people were rescued initially and 21 were evacuated later.
“Most of those who came with injuries had fracture but they were mostly traumatised,” said a district doctor posted at the primary care centre set up at the base camp.
Rescue work has been hampered by poor access to the village. The village is a 6-km trek through two hills from the base camp, taking anywhere between 1-2 hours. With no proper roads, the terrain is difficult to navigate. It is an uphill climb with the slope titled 30 degrees. Torrential rains have made the situation worse.
CM Eknath Shinde undertook the trek on Thursday morning to reach the site to take stock of the situation.
“So far, 12 dead bodies have been recovered by search and rescue teams. As many as 103 people have been identified who were living there. Some of them were out for work in paddy fields and some children had gone to residential schools. Search for them is on,” he had said.
“This village was not in the list of landslide-prone villages… Our priority now is to rescue those still trapped beneath the rubble. There is continuous heavy rainfall and the debris and rubble has mounted up to 15 to 20 feet,” the CM had told reporters.
A fireman involved in rescue operations died of a heart attack while climbing the hill to reach the village. “The fire officer was climbing up the steepest part of the hill. He was breathless and collapsed following pressure on his heart. He couldn’t be revived after that,” an official said.
The village is 6-km from Morbe dam, which supplies water to Navi Mumbai. It is located near Irshalgad fortress between Matheran and Panvel. The fortress is a sister fort to Prabalgad.
Irshalwadi is a tribal village inaccessible by pucca road. Chowk village on Mumbai-Pune Highway is the nearest town.
This is the biggest landslide in Maharashtra after the July 30, 2014 landslide at Malin village in Ambegaon tehsil of Pune district. The massive landslide had swallowed up almost the entire tribal village of around 50 families. The final death toll was 153 when the rescue operation was stopped. Nothing of the old village remains except for its school building.
With agency inputs
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