Deadly Landslide at Pune Village

Rescuers worked in rain Thursday July 31,2014 to dig through a remote village in western India where at least 21 people died as a landslide swept away scores of houses, possibly trapping many more people under debris

They had already worked through the night using floodlights mounted on jeeps and earthmoving vehicles to pull seven injured people out of the mud and twisted wreckage, Vitthal Banot, a disaster management official, said Thursday. They were taken to a nearby government-run hospital, but their injuries were not life threatening.

But continuing rains and bad roads were hampering rescue efforts in Ambegaon, a village in Pune district in Maharashtra state, said Alok Avasthy, a National Disaster Response Force commander.
Banot said 21 bodies __ 11 men and 10 women __ had been recovered from under mud, rocks, trees and other debris.
"Everything on the mountain came down," said Suresh Jadhav, a district official, describing how a cascade of mud, rocks and uprooted trees swamped the area.

But with 70 homes buried and reports of another 158 hit by the landslide, rescuers anticipated more dead in the village, home to 704 people in the foothills of the Sahyadri Mountains.

Landslides are common in the area during the monsoon season, which runs from June through September.

Pune district is about 150 kilometers (95 miles) southeast of Mumbai, India's commercial capital. The nearest medical center is about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the village.

The area around the village has been deforested extensively, increasing its vulnerability to landslides.