Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday told the Legislative Assembly that the Irshalwadi village in Raigad's Khalapur taluka, where a landslide killed 16 people and scores of people were feared trapped, was not in the list of landslide-prone villages and had no history of landslides. Fadnavis told the House that two teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) comprising 60 jawans, teams of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), trained trekkers, other government officials and over 1,000 workers equipped with the requisite machinery were sent to Irshalgad (Raigad) and are engaged in the rescue operation. Fadnavis told the Assembly that the landslide took place around 11pm and the incessant rain and lack of road infrastructure hampered the rescue operation. "Since there is no road connectivity, vehicles and machinery cannot reach the spot and one has to walk for over one-and-a-half hours to reach there. The full strength of the administration has been deployed for the rescue operation. Due to incessant rain and bad weather, there are difficulties in the rescue operation but the teams are finding ways to overcome it," said Fadnavis. "Chief Minister Eknath Shinde ji himself reached the spot. Minister Girish Mahajan and MLA Mahesh Baldi reached the spot at midnight itself, in spite of the difficulties in reaching there," said the Deputy CM. He told the House that in the last three days, around 499mm rain has been recorded in the area where the landslide took place. "60 NDRF jawans and trained hikers/trekkers have been deployed at the site for rescue operations. Two Indian Air Force helicopters are ready at Santacruz but cannot take off due to bad weather. A temporary helipad has been created near the landslide-hit village. The possibility of air-lifting earth earth-moving machines is also being explored," he said adding Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been informed about the incident. After the landslide, the Opposition moved an Adjournment Motion. State Congress president Nana Patole asked Fadnavis to apprise the House about the report prepared by the Madhav Gadgil committee on the ecology of villages, which are prone to landslides that was prepared during the Congress-NCP government between 2009-2014. Responding to Nana Patole, Fadnavis said as per the recommendation of the report, the mapping of all the landslide-prone villages in the state, including those on the Western Ghats, was carried out during his tenure as the Chief Minister of the state between 2014 and 2019 and was submitted to the Union government. "The (landslide) vulnerability mapping of all the villages with their core and buffer zones was completed and a list of those villages, which are prone to landslides, was prepared. Irshalwadi was not in the list of landslide-prone villages," Fadnavis said. CM reviews rescue ops CM Eknath Shinde, along with a few other ministers, have been camping at Irshalwadi village since Thursday morning to review the ongoing rescue operations and relief work.
