Flood-like situation in Baramati, Indapur as monsoon arrives early in Maharashtra

Heavy rains lashed Baramati and Indapur tehsils in Pune district on Sunday, 25 May, creating a flood-like situation across several areas and prompting the urgent deployment of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, officials said.

According to the district administration, Baramati received 83.6 mm of rainfall, while Indapur recorded 35.7 mm during the day. The torrential downpour caused waterlogging across both tehsils, inundating homes in 70 villages in Indapur and 150 homes in Baramati. Residents had to be shifted to safety as rainwater entered houses, with local authorities and police acting swiftly to evacuate affected families.

On the urgent request of the district collector, the NDRF deployed two specialised teams from their unit headquarters to conduct rescue and relief operations. The teams, equipped with deep diving sets, flood water rescue gear, and medical first response equipment, carried out several rescue operations.

In Baramati, 19 houses suffered partial damage. In Katewadi, a family of seven was rescued from their waterlogged home by locals and officials, while in Jalochi village, a man named Rupesh Singh was saved by the fire brigade after being stranded in a stream when his motorcycle was swept away.

The NDRF said in a release that the deployment was necessitated due to breaches in water canals that led to severe inundation of low-lying residential areas. Rising water levels in the Kara river (Baramati) and Neera river (Indapur) intensified the crisis. Initially, seven people were reported trapped in Baramati and two in Indapur, all of whom have been rescued, it added.

A two-hour closure was reported on the Pune-Solapur highway near Indapur due to heavy waterlogging, but traffic resumed once the water receded, said Pune (Rural) Superintendent of Police Sandip Singh Gill.

Responding to the situation, Baramati MP Supriya Sule urged Maharashtra’s Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil to consider postponing exams scheduled for Monday. In her message on X, she noted that continuous rainfall over the past three to four days had led to waterlogging and that students might face difficulties reaching examination centres.

In another post, Sule highlighted that overflowing drains and streams had exacerbated the flooding in parts of Pune and her Baramati constituency. She urged the district collectorate, the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority, and civic bodies to activate administrative measures and provide immediate relief to affected citizens.

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) confirmed that the southwest monsoon made its earliest onset over Maharashtra in 35 years on Sunday, following its arrival in Kerala a day earlier. IMD scientist Sushma Nair said the last early onset over Maharashtra was in 1990, when the monsoon arrived on 20 May.

The monsoon has already advanced into parts of the Arabian Sea, Karnataka, entire Goa, sections of Maharashtra, the north Bay of Bengal, Mizoram, Manipur, and Nagaland. It is expected to reach Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra within the next three days.

According to the IMD, conditions remain favourable for further advancement of the monsoon into more areas of Maharashtra, including Mumbai, and other parts of central and southern India over the next 72 hours.

Monsoon expert M Rajeevan, former secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, noted that such a widespread advance of the monsoon on the day of its onset is not uncommon. “Present active monsoon conditions will continue at least till 2 June and will help the monsoon progress into Maharashtra and eastern parts of the country,” he said.