IAF rescues five stranded cattle grazers from flooded area in Rajanna Sircilla district

Five cattle grazers, who were stranded in the flooded area along the swollen Manair river at Narmala village in Rajanna Sircilla for more than 24 hours, were rescued by two Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters on Thursday afternoon.

They were stuck on the other side of the Upper Manair Project at Narmala since Wednesday noon, facing incessant rain.

They were airlifted to safety by two IAF choppers, bringing relief to their family members.

The heavy rain and gushing waters of the swollen Manair river hampered the rescue operation on Wednesday, necessitating the deployment of choppers to airlift the stranded persons, sources said.

The district authorities managed to deliver food and drinking water to the five stranded cattle grazers using drones on Wednesday. The family members of the five persons heaved a sigh of relief following the successful rescue operation by the IAF.

NDRF rescues two

Meanwhile, in a swift rescue operation, the personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescued a villager, who had taken refuge on a tree in a flooded stream at Lingannapeta village in the same mandal, using an inflatable boat, shortly after Wednesday midnight.

In a separate incident, a 60-year-old cattle grazer, identified as Shankar, who was stuck on a rock surrounded by a swollen stream at Munipalli village in Nirmal district for nearly 30 hours, was rescued by a NDRF team on Thursday afternoon.

In Jagtial district, a youth identified as Srikar, had gone missing after the tractor-trolley he was travelling in with a Ganesh idol overturned and fell into an overflowing stream at Peddapur village in Metpalli mandal on Wednesday.

Two others managed to swim to safety.

Many parts of north Telangana received heavy rainfall overnight throwing normal life out of gear, cutting off road link to several villages due to overflowing streams in Nirmal, Adilabad, Jagtial, Karimnagar and elsewhere in the region.

Godavari river in spate

Incessant heavy rain disrupted normal life in parts of the State’s tribal heartland spanning Mulugu and Bhadradri Kothagudem districts on Thursday.

Water level in the Godavari has been on the rise at Tupakulagudem in Mulugu district and Bhadrachalam in Bhadradri Kothagudem district following release of water from upstream dams including Kaddem and Sripada Yellampalli projects coupled with incessant rains in the catchment areas of the river.

People living downstream of the Sammakka Sagar (Tupakulagudem) barrage have been alerted in view of the likely release of surplus water on Thursday night in view of heavy inflows from the upstream dams. A small portion of the National Highway 163 was washed away after a stream overflowed due to incessant rain at Mandala Thogu village in Tadvai mandal in Mulugu district. 

At 7 p.m. on Thursday, water level in the Godavari at Bhadrachalam rose to 38.50 feet, nearly four feet less than the first flood warning level of 43 feet.