Mumbai: Thirteen bodies have been recovered in western India after the heaviest monsoon rains in a decade breached a dam and caused mayhem in Mumbai, authorities said on Thursday. Eleven people were still missing after the dam in Ratnagiri, around 275 kilometres south of Mumbai, burst on Wednesday and swamped seven local villages, rescuers said.
“We have commenced rescue operations for the second day and recovered 13 dead bodies. We are still trying to find remaining victims,” National Disaster Response Force spokesman Alok Awasthy said.
In Mumbai, the death toll from a wall collapse in a slum on Tuesday rose to 26 as the city braced for 200 millimetres (eight inches) of fresh rain forecast in the coming days.
Six labourers also died in the nearby city of Pune when another wall collapsed on Tuesday.
Building collapses and dam breaches are common during the monsoon in India due to dilapidated structures that buckle under the weight of continuous rain.
Torrential downpours in Mumbai — a city of 20 million — earlier this week caused traffic misery as floods swamped roads and railways and forced the closure of the airport’s main runway, which remained off limits on Thursday. India’s second-busiest airport cancelled 75 flights on Wednesday and more than 100 on Tuesday, causing chaos for passengers.
The monsoon rains in the week ending on Wednesday were below average for the fifth time in a row, although the deficit was the lowest since the start of the season, after it revived in central and western regions.
Monsoon rains are crucial for farm output and economic growth, as about 55 per cent of India’s arable land is rain-fed, and agriculture forms about 15 per cent of a $2.5-trillion economy that is the third biggest in Asia.
India received 6 per cent less rainfall than the 50-year average in the week ended on July 3, data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) showed.
Soybean- and cotton-growing central regions received 43 per cent more rainfall in the week, while the rubber- and tea-growing southern state of Kerala got 87 per cent lower rainfall. India has received rain that is 28 per cent less than average since the monsoon season began on June 1.
— AFP/Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
