Noida: The overflowing Yamuna has inundated around 550 hectares of land along its banks in Noida, impacted eight villages and displaced more than 5,000 people in flood-hit areas, officials said on Friday.
More than 3,500 animals, including cattle, dogs, rabbits, ducks, roosters, and guinea pigs, since Thursday have been brought to safety from the submerged areas, officials said.
Teams of the NDRF, the SDRF, the PAC, local police and firefighters continued to move people and animals from risky areas to safer locations, they said. Noida Authority CEO Ritu Maheshwari, District Magistrate Manish Kumar Verma, and Police Commissioner Laxmi Singh oversaw the rescue and relief operations at the ground, they added.
Human rescue was almost over by Friday afternoon but an estimated 300-400 animals were still stuck in the low-lying floodplains, according to officials.
“Around 550 hectares of land along the Yamuna in Noida is currently submerged in water. Since yesterday, around 5,000 people and around 3,500 animals have been moved to safer locations,” District Magistrate Manish Kumar Verma told PTI.
“People of eight villages have been impacted due to this in Noida. Proper arrangements for their stay and food have been made at four shelter homes and medical teams have also been stationed at the site,” Verma said.
Maheshwari said her department is providing human and other resources required for rescue and relief operations.
“As the flood alert was issued, we evacuated all cattle from our cow shelter which had been inundated. For the people, the community centres of Noida Authority have been converted into shelter homes,” Maheshwari said.
Additional DCP (Noida) Shakti Mohan Avasthy said the human rescue from inundation was “almost over” by Friday evening.
“There are almost no more distress calls from stranded people but some animals, including cattle, are still stuck and efforts are underway to rescue them,” Avasthy said.
Additional DM and nodal officer for relief work Atul Kumar said more than one quintal of jaggery was being procured to feed the cattle stranded deep inside the inundated area.
Earlier in the day, the DM and the police chief visited Nangli Wazidpur and Nangli Shakarpur villages among other areas where rescue teams were at work to help stranded people.
“The top officers also visited shelter homes where the displaced people are staying and being given proper meals as per guidelines,” District Information Officer Rakesh Chauhan said.
According to officials, the people in shelter homes and those who are still stranded were served breakfast and lunch till 2 pm on Thursday.
The administration is prepared to arrange for meals over the next couple of days, if required, they said.
“For breakfast, we served them soupy items along with rusk, bread, namkeen and biscuits. Milk powder has also been distributed for young children and infants. For lunch, we had ‘tehri’ (a mixture of rice and vegetables),” District Supply Officer Chaman Sharma told PTI.
“We have one major spot for distribution of free meals and have three to four mobile vans carrying 500 to 600 small packets of food and snacks,” Sharma said.
The officer said, at the latest count, around 20 people of his department, another 40-50 from other departments, and about a dozen cooks were at work to prepare and supply food to the flood-affected people.
According to Irrigation Department officials, the water level in Yamuna on Friday was at 200.75 metres at the Okhla Barrage in Noida — a little above the danger mark of 200.60 metres which it crossed on Thursday at 11.45 am.
The water discharge continued to be at 3,48,765 cusecs at the Okhla Barrage, a little above its capacity but constant from Thursday, officials said.
Waterlogging was also witnessed near high-rise residential societies in Sector 13 caused by the water flowing back from storm water drains due to pressure in Yamuna, Noida Authority officials said.
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