At least 20 persons have lost their lives while more than 5,000 have to be evacuated from low-lying areas of Chandrapur district in Maharashtra following heavy rain. According to the disaster management cell, 5,204 persons have been evacuated with more than 2,000 shifted to relief camps set up in government schools and public buildings. The authorities have deployed the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to carry out relief and rescue operations. The banks of the Wainganga river have been breached, thus flooding the nearby areas. Worse still, water is being released into the Wainganga from the Gosikhurd dam in neighbouring Bhandara district, officials say. Water level has gone up in all 11 irrigation projects in Chandrapur. Low-lying areas in Chandrapur city and Ballarpur township have been inundated. The Irai river has inundated a number of areas in Chandrapur city. Flooding has destroyed standing crop in more than 2 lakh hectares in the district. The damage has been more than 50 per cent in some areas. Elsewhere in the region, the administration has warned people settled in low-lying areas to shift to higher places as water from the upper and lower Wardha projects in Amravati district would be released into the Wardha. Water from the Isapur project is also being released into the Painganga, thereby threatening low-lying areas in Yavatmal district.