Floods hit north Karnataka; Kodagu put on red alert

BENGALURU: Five districts in north Karnataka — Belagavi, Bagalkot, Vijayapura, Raichur and Yadgir — continue to reel under floods caused by heavy rain in Maharashtra and discharge of water into rivers flowing into the state.
The situation on Sunday turned worse with Maharashtra releasing more water from Koyna, Varana and other reservoirs into Krishna river, causing heavy inflow into Almatti and Narayanapura dams.Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam (KBJNL) officials said the inflow at Almatti dam touched 2.5 lakh cusecs on Sunday — up from 1.5 lakh cusecs on Saturday — forcing officials to discharge 2.8 lakh cusecs.
“We have been increasing the outflow in proportion to the inflow into our reservoirs,” said RP Kulkarni, chief engineer, Almatti Zone, KBJNL. The inflow is likely to increase as the MeT department has forecast heavy rain in Maharashtra over the next two days. District administrations have sent out red alerts to villages located along the Krishna and have urged people to move to safer areas.
On Sunday, more villages in Belagavi, Bagalkot and Vijayapura districts located downstream from Krishna Basin were inundated and heavy damage causes to property and crops. Several villages turned islands with roads and bridges submerged under water. The heavy release of water from Almatti dam also caused damage to crops and property in areas downstream from the reservoir, with hundreds of acres of standing crops in Raichur and Yadgir districts under flood water.
Second death in Belagavi
One person in Ankalagi village in Belagavi district was washed away while trying to cross a submerged bridge. This is the second death caused due to rain in the past two days.
Of the five districts, Belagavi is the worst affected. Over 35 villages in Chikkodi are partially submerged, leaving hundreds of people homeless and cattle stranded. The administration relocated around 235 families to safer areas and eight rescue shelters have been opened across the district.
In Vijayapura and Bagalkot, 35 families were shifted to safer places. R Ramachandran, Bagalkot deputy commissioner said all schools and colleges in Muttur, Tubachi, and Nandagav villages in Mudhol taluk will remain closed till August 7 due to the threat of floods.
The state government has stepped up rescue operations by pressing more teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Forces into action. It has also deployed boats to ferry people to safer areas. Five teams of NDRF comprising 10 people each reached Belagavi and Raichur respectively on Sunday noon. In addition, 90 army personnel and 75 staff of the fire department, who are trained in disaster management, were deployed at critical places.
Venkatesh Kumar, Kalburgi DC, has also alerted villages on the banks of Bhima river in Chittapur taluk and has urged people to move to safer areas following the release of more than 1tmc of water into the river from Neera river of Purandar taluk, Pune.