Heavy rains in Karnataka: Govt puts four districts on high alert

In the wake of heavy rainfall in some parts of the state over the past week, the state government has put four districts - Kalaburagi, Bidar, Yadgir and Vijayapura - on high alert.

Speaking to mediapersons here, Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said that while there was a 56 per cent rainfall deficit in June, the state has received more than normal rainfall in July. Hence, the rainfall deficit has now come down to 14 per cent. “We are constantly in touch with the deputy commissioners and have asked them to be on high alert,” he said.

In north interior Karnataka, there has been 170 per cent more rainfall than normal. In Kalaburagi, it is 300 per cent; Yadgir - 160 per cent, Bidar - 155 per cent, Belagavi - 186 per cent, Bagalkot - 174 per cent, Vijayapura - 185 per cent and Gadag - 166 per cent. The India Meteorological Department has predicted good rainfall until July 28, and the next four days are crucial, the minister added.

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If water is released from Maharashtra’s Ujjani dam, there is a risk of the Bhima basin being flooded and hence, the region has been put on high alert, Gowda added.

In the last one week, coastal Karnataka, Malnad and north interior Karnataka have received good rainfall with the state receiving an overall of 80 per cent rainfall, the minister said.

From June 1 up to the present, there have been 27 casualties due to rain-related accidents. A majority of the casualties occurred due to lightning strike, Gowda said.

Meanwhile, there is an excess inflow of 144 tmcft in reservoirs across the state. Just on Sunday, 40 tmcft have been stored. “In Cauvery basin, there is 67,278 cusec inflow. There has been an outflow of 9,000 cusec in Kabini and KRS reservoirs. In Malaprabha, Ghataprabha, Almatti, Narayanapur and Tungabhadra dams, there is a total inflow of 2.61 lakh cusec,” Gowda said.

To the contrary, places such as Bengaluru, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagar, Kolar, Chamarajnagar and Mandya have seen a rain deficit.

Nonetheless, the state government is unable to take a call on declaring drought in any of the rain deficit regions as the central government’s guidelines are stringent. “Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is writing to the Centre seeking relaxation of the drought guidelines. In 85 taluks, there’s a 20% rainfall deficit,” Gowda pointed out.

In 2016, the union government changed the drought guidelines. While earlier, a 20% rainfall deficit was taken as drought, now, there has to be a 60% or more deficit. Other than that, the guidelines also say that there should be no rainfall for three consecutive weeks. This poses a challenge as owing to erratic rainfall, sometimes three weeks rainfall is compensated in one day, the minister said.