Baby, family pulled from floodwaters in Amalner, Jalgaon district

A one-month-old baby and family members were pulled from floodwaters in Amalner, Jalgaon district, on Friday, in a rescue carried out by the local fire brigade and municipal health department.

The district has seen incessant rain for two days, recording 104mm overall, with Jalgaon city logging 118mm, according to local reports.

Rising waters pushed the Tapi River into flood, forcing authorities to open all 41 gates of the Hatnur Dam, while the Girna Dam filled to capacity and the Aner River saw its biggest flood in two years.

In Batsar, a separate operation rescued eight people from floodwaters the same day, as emergency crews remained stretched across the district.

The India Meteorological Department has issued an orange alert for Nashik and the Pune ghat area, with Sindhudurg, Satara, Kolhapur, Nandurbar, Wardha and Chandrapur under a yellow alert as the system continues across Maharashtra.

The state recorded an average of 51.09mm of rain over the last 24 hours and has received 104.1% of its normal rainfall for June and July this season.

The Hatnur Dam and Girna Dam are among the major irrigation reservoirs on the Tapi and Girna rivers respectively, both of which serve as key water sources for agriculture across north Maharashtra.

Local fire brigade teams across Jalgaon district have been on standby through the current spell, responding to multiple waterlogging and rescue calls as rivers and dams fill rapidly.

The state government has directed district administrations in flood-affected areas to keep relief camps and emergency response teams ready as the monsoon system continues to move across Maharashtra.

IMD officials attributed the intense rain spell to a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal, which has driven heavy rainfall across the Konkan coast, the Western Ghats and parts of Vidarbha.

Maharashtra has received 104.1% of its normal rainfall for the June-July period this year, according to IMD data, reflecting an active monsoon season across the state so far.

Photo by Kumarrakajee, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0