Rivers in spate as rains lash Karnataka

Bengaluru: A majority of rivers in Karnataka are in spate following heavy downpour in the past few days while the situation remained grim in the worst-hit Udupi district where floods waters were yet to recede despite some respite in rains on Monday, officials said.

According to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), almost all the dams were full to the brim due to the heavy rains since Friday, prompting officials to open the floodgates.

"Opening the floodgates has led to flooding in the regions in downstream. We have sounded an alert in many areas but still, some villages will face the problem," said a KSNDMC official.

Water resource department sources said Cauvery, Hemavathi, Kapila and Harangi rivers were flowing above the danger level and water was being discharged from dams built across them. Sagar dam across Cauvery) today. "We have alerted people in the downstream," an official in the Water Resource Department said. Similarly, rivers in north Karnataka and interior Karnataka are also flowing above danger level and important dams such as Bhadra, Tungabhadra, Ghataprabha, Malaprabha, Almatti, and Narayanapura are full to the brim.

Low-lying areas in Udupi battered by unprecedented rains in four decades continued to be flooded and rescue teams led by National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel faced a tough time evacuating marooned people to safer places, a report from Mangaluru said.

Life is slowly coming back to normal in parts of the district with the rains keeping away most of the time on Monday.

Many areas in Udupi town, including the 'Rajangana' at the Sri Krishna Mutt, shops and business establishments, parking areas, and godowns were submerged in water while road connectivity to different parts of the district had been lost. A landslide on Monday morning is posing a grave danger to a premier residential and commercial enclave in Manipal in the district. The municipal authorities are taking urgent steps to vacate the people in the building, which has ten floors. They said the Udupi district, which suffered extensive damage in many taluks, had not witnessed such heavy rains in the last four decades.

The two rivers in the district, Swarna and Sitanadi, were flowing above danger levels. Udupi Deputy Commissioner G Jagadeesha visited the affected areas and gave instructions into the personnel involved in rescue efforts. A total of 31 relief camps had been opened in the district where the red alert continued as heavy rains are expected till Tuesday. In Dakshina Kannada district, several houses and buildings were submerged and vehicular movement was disrupted in many parts due to the rains during the last two days.