Incessant rains since Sunday lashed most parts of Gujarat causing flooding in the areas of north Gujarat, Kutch and south Gujarat region. Several districts have received more than their normal average of the season in the past three days.
Heavy rains caused flooding in districts of Banaskantha, Mehsana, Patan, Sabarkantha, Gandhinagar, Kutch and parts of Saurashtra, where people had to be evacuated to safer places.
As per the met department data, Banaskantha district in north Gujarat had received cumulative rainfall of 532 mm till 5 am of July 28 showing 105 per cent rise from the normal 259 mm.
Chief Minister Anandiben Patel reviewed the situation in the affected regions and ordered fire brigade and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to rush rescue teams to the worst affected regions.
The districts badly hit include Banaskantha, Patan and Surat, where road connection with several villages was cut-off due to flooding. Power supply in many villages in the districts of Banaskantha, Patan and Sabarkantha has been disrupted due to heavy flooding. Roads have been damaged and rail tracks have been washed away in parts of north Gujarat.
The state authorities said the focus is on rescuingthose trapped in the interior villages, while the assessment of loss will be done later.
Reservoirs put on alert “There was low pressure area over South-west Rajasthan and parts of Gujarat. Yesterday, it intensified into depression and since morning today, it has converted into deep depression resulting in heavy to very heavy rains across the state,” said Jayanta Sarkar, Director, India Meteorological Department (IMD), Ahmedabad.
Incessant rains since Monday in northern, central, southern and Kutch region have caused flooding in many rivers and about seven reservoirs in the state have been put on high alert.
Kharif sowing Meanwhile, the state agriculture data, released on Tuesday, showed further progress with regard to kharif sowing. As on Monday54.79 lakh hectares have been covered under kharif sowing, about 1.3 lakh hectares more than that in the same period last year.
Major crops include cotton with 24.23 lakh hectares, groundnut with 12.61 lakh hectares and 2.45 lakh hectares under pulses besides crops such as cereals and vegetables and other cash crops. Notably, soybean area has almost doubled to 83,000 hectares from last year’s 43,400 hectares.