KOLHAPUR: A 50-year-old man, Bajrang Khamkar found stranded on a tree in the swollen Warna river on the border of Kolhapur and Sangli districts in western Maharashtra, was rescued on Friday morning, more than 12 hours after he fell into the water body, an official said.
The personnel of the Kolhapur Disaster Response Force (KDRF) rescued the man, he said.
Kolhapur district has been witnessing heavy rainfall over the past few days, due to which the level of water in several rivers, including the Panchganga and the Warna, has gone up.
According to Prasad Sankpal, Kolhapur district disaster management officer, the man identified as Bajrang Khamkar, a resident of Lakhewadi village in Sangli's Shirala, had gone to see the water level of the Warna river from a bridge around 9 pm on Thursday. But he fell into the water after losing balance and was swept away by strong currents.
On Friday morning, some people saw him stranded on a tree in the middle of the swollen river and alerted the local administration.
The KDRF immediately dispatched a team to rescue the man, Prasad Sankpal said.
"Around 10.30 am, the squad comprising team commanders Krushna Sorte, Sunil Kamble, Shubham Katkar, Jeevan Kubde, Shravan and Somnath Sutar, rescued Khamkar from the tree using a rescue boat. They also provided him with medical assistance," Sankpal said.
Meanwhile, the water level of the Panchganga River in Kolhapur, which is already flowing above the warning level, has reached 41. 2 feet, officials said.
The river's warning mark at the Rajaram weir is 39 feet, while the danger mark is 43 feet, they said.
Kolhapur's district guardian minister Deepak Kesarkar visited the city on Thursday and took stock of the situation.
He said that after five automated gates of the Radhanagari dam were opened on Wednesday, there was an estimate that the water level of the Panchganga River would rise by 5 to 6 feet, but as the intensity of rain reduced, the water level did not rise as anticipated.
"I asked the district administration to take a review and send the people, who were evacuated and shifted to safer places, back to their places," Kesarkar said on Thursday evening.
The overall situation is likely to improve as the weather department has not issued any 'orange alert' for the district on Friday and water is also being released from Karnataka's Almatti dam, he added.