Copious rains bring huge inflows to reservoirs in Tirupati district

Tirupati: The after effects of Cyclone Mandous are still continuing over Tirupati district with several water bodies, reservoirs and tanks having almost reached the brim.

The crops in thousands of hectares were lost dashing the hopes of farmers. With the copious rains almost all reservoirs including major, medium and minor have received good inflows while some of them particularly on the coastal belt were overflowing.

Though the rains have receded at many places, still water has been flowing on causeways causing disruptions to traffic and inconvenience to people. As per the official information released by the district officials, the Araniyar reservoir at Pichatur in the Satyavedu constituency was still getting about 1,900 cusecs of inflow while 300 cusecs are being released from it. The full storage capacity of the project was 1.853 tmcft whereas the present storage level is at 1.423 tmcft. Satyavedu MLA K Adimulam performed Jala Harati at the project on Sunday.

Kalangi reservoir in KVB Puram mandal has been receiving 4,500 cusecs of inflows while the total outflow stood at 4,505 cusecs. Its maximum level is 219.20 ft and the present level stood at 219.20 ft. While the full storage capacity of Mallemadugu reservoir in Renigunta mandal is 0.181 tmcft, the present water level is at 0.1265 tmcft. It has been receiving 2,200 cusecs inflow and the outflow stood at 1,500 cusecs. To release the water three gates were raised by 2 ft. Similarly, 15 gates of Swarnamukhi barrage at Vakadu were raised to release 30,000 cusecs of water as it has been getting the same quantity of inflow.

As against the full storage capacity of 0.91 tmcft at Kalyani dam, 59 per cent of it has been reached with the water level at the dam standing at 0.531 tmcft. The inflow into the dam was at 150 cusecs while the outflow was 10 cusecs. It was also learnt that about 339 tanks have received surplus water against their full reservoir levels while 132 tanks out of total 2,459 tanks were filled to their capacity. Another 207 tanks have reached 75 per cent of their total capacity.

Though officials were busy enumerating the losses, it was learnt that crops were washed away in thousands of hectares in the district. Farmers who cultivated paddy were at great loss as the crop was submerged in water in Srikalahasti, Sullurpet and Gudur divisions. Several horticulture crops, banana trees, groundnut and other crops were also damaged. In spite of the situation limping back to normalcy with only a minimum rainfall having been reported in several parts of the district, the crop losses and damages to roads and houses may be heavy. The initial estimates may be ready in the next couple of days. Meanwhile, officials have been supplying food and other essentials to the people at the rehabilitation centres.