Heavy rains for the past three days have resulted in most rivers crossing danger mark levels in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara, affecting milk collection by dairies.
The Gokul cooperatives has announced it will not be able to supply milk to Mumbai and Pune on Saturday while smaller dairies have also stopped milk collection from the farmers.
Vishawas Patil, chairman, Kolhapur Zilla Sahakari Dudh Utpadak Sangh Limited, which owns Gokul, said they have decided not to supply to Mumbai, which is the largest market for the brand. “The [milk] collection has largely been affected on Thursday and Friday due to downpour in Western Maharashtra and Konkan. Against the daily collection of 1.3 million liters, we could collect about 250,000 liters on Friday. It dropped by 76,000 on Thursday,” he said and added that “many highways heading to Mumbai are shut as heavy rainfall continued on Friday as well.
Patil said milk supply to the Mumbai market will resume as soon as possible.
“Both of these places broke the all-time record of highest 24hrs rain in July. Pune, too, with 80mm rainfall has received the highest 24hrs rainfall after 2014,” said Vineet Kumar, Researcher at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune.
An official from the Kolhapur district disaster management cell said the Panchganga river’s water level is currently at 55 feet at the Rajaram weir. A total of 114 bunds have gone under water, he added.
District administration said on Thursday as many as 47 villages in Kolhapur were cut off after roads were submerged due to heavy rains and 965 families were shifted to safer places. Two persons, including a woman, were also swept away at different places in the district during the downpour.
In Sangli as many as 36,000 people were evacuated after Krishna river touched the danger mark of 45-feet at Irwin bridge.
