E-Paper
Large parts of Karnataka face floods as rains continue to batter state
Around 29,000 people have been evacuated by the disaster relief forces and army personnel so far.
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Heavy rains continued to batter Karnataka on Wednesday, and so far five people have lost their lives since last week, officials confirmed. Around 29,000 people have been evacuated by the disaster relief forces and army personnel so far.
The highest number of evacuees was from Belagavi district on the border with Maharashtra, where around 23,000 people had been asked to leave their homes in light of the precarious situation, according to the states’s disaster management officials. Around 10,000 people had been moved to relief camps across the state.
The evacuation was necessitated because the state recevied 394% more rainfall than the long period average in the 24-hour period ending 8am on Wednesday, as per data from the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre. The rainfall was concentrated mostly on the coastal and Malnad (hill) districts of the state.
As per the data, on the day the coastal region received 351% more rainfall than the long-period average and the Malnad region received 574% more than the normal. The highest amount of rainfall was recorded at Doradahalli in Chickamagaluru district, which recorded 36.9 cm rainfall over the 24-hour period.
Though the situation was dire in the coastal districts, the problem in the north was compounded by the huge amount of water released into the Krishna river by Maharashtra. According to the state’s disaster management officials, around 3.46 lakh cusecs of water had been released by Maharashtra into the Krishna river.
The Almatti dam in Vijayapura received an inflow of 3.64 lakh cusecs and outflow reached over 4 lakh cusecs. Similar was the case of the Narayanpur dam downstream, as it received 3.95 lakh cusecs and released 4.13 lakh cusecs.
The situation continues to be dire, especially in light of the red alert issued by the India Meteorological Department for the coastal and Malnad districts for the next five days. Chief minister BS Yediyurappa rushed back to the state from New Delhi to take stock of the situation and flew to Belagavi as soon as he reached the state as it was the worst affected so far.
Such has been the intensity of the showers over the past week that the state recorded 131% excess rainfall over this period when compared to the normal. This has almost wiped out the 26% deficit the state faced at the June, as the monsoon was slow to pick up. At present, there is only a 2% deficit in rainfall for the southwest monsoon, which lasts till the end of the month.
