Heavy downpour expected in Karnataka

Bengaluru: The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) says that it will rain heavily for the next five days in Karnataka. The IMD has also issued a yellow alert for multiple districts across the state. The forecast states that Bengaluru should expect heavy rains after two days. On Wednesday, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Kodagu, Bengaluru Rural, Chitradurga, Chamarajanagara, Hassan, Shivamogga, Mandya, and Tumakuru are set to get heavy rains. The IMD has issued a yellow alert for Chamarajanagar, Kodagu, Shivamogga, Belagavi, Haveri, Bagalkot, Kalaburagi, Koppal, Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Udupi, and Ballari districts.

It is to be noted that the city of Bengaluru received heavy rainfall of 1,706 mm last month, which broke all previous rainfall records for the city. This caused havoc in multiple areas within the city.

In September this year, the city of Bengaluru saw unusually heavy rains that caused flooding and, eventually, loss of property. The state government also started cleaning up areas that had grown near the storm drains around the city because of this event. The state government took a lot of heat from the opposition because of the widespread flooding and damage to property and infrastructure. The same opposition that had pointed out encroachments of the stormwater drains in the city has criticised the government for removing them after the recent floods. According to the BBMP officials, the roads that sustained damage and developed potholes were due to the heavy to very heavy rains in the past few months. The new alert issued by the IMD rattled the engineering division not for the criticism from the opposition, but for the chances of roads going even worse during the coming rains as predicted by the IMD. It adds to road users' woes that not only can existing potholes on the roads not be repaired, but newer and larger potholes will appear on the roads in the coming days, and existing potholes will become larger due to rain in the coming days.

On the coastal region, the district administrations of Uttara Kannada, Udupi and Dakshina Kannada have advised the fishermen not to venture into the sea and also the people thronging to the beaches are advised not to go there. The fishermen are the worst affected due to the extended monsoons and have suffered the loss of catch due to the rough seas despite the new fishing season opened for operations 60 days back, the total landing of the catch was already down by 30 per cent .