Flash floods in Nanded have left 8 dead with 5 others missing from the district. District collector Rahul Kardile while speaking to The Indian Express said around 300 people have been moved to higher ground for safety. Excessive rains in the state has seen crops over 5.49 lakh hectares of farmland being affected.

“Army and paramilitary forces are involved in the search operations,” he said.

Kardile said the Lendi catchment area in Ardhapur taluka had received record rainfall of over 200 mms. Similarly the upper stream areas had received 300 mm of rainfall which deteriorated the situation.

The three villages in Ardhapur taluka of Nanded, have sustained maximum hit due to the floods. The rains and flood situation, Kardile said, have come under control on Tuesday.

A preliminary report from the agriculture department showed that over 5.49 lakh hectares of crop were affected. Crops in 17 districts have been affected, with Nanded reporting the largest damage of over 2.59 lakh hectares of farm land. Mong, soyabean, cotton, sugarcane and tur are some of the crops which have been affected.

Tuesday was another wet day in Pune with IMD issuing a red alert for the ghat areas of Pune on Monday. Shivajinagar’s automatic weather station reported 41.4 mm of rainfall and Girirvan reported the highest rainfall of 82 mm. Similarly, Lavale (52 mm), Talegaon (43 mm), Chinchwad (41.5 mm) are some of the areas experiencing rain.

The present rainfall is due to a low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal. The red alert over the ghat areas has been issued till Wednesday. The IMD has said the rainfall activities would taper off from Thursday onwards.

Serious traffic snarls were reported across the city and surrounding areas throughout Tuesday following the rain.

“All major arterial roads and major traffic junctions witnessed slowing down of vehicular movement due to heavy rains on Tuesday. Our entire strength was deployed on the ground to manage the situation and ensure that there were no jams.” said an officer from the traffic control branch.