IDUKKI: The rain gauge installed at Thekkady to measure inflow of water to Mullaperiyar dam started collecting data on Tuesday. This is first of its kind to be set up in the district.
The gauge would also give details of intensity of rain, its quantity, atmospheric pressure, heat and solar radiation among other details disaster management head Shekhar Kuriakose said.
Installation of the gauge would make disaster management in the district transparent as all the data of the gauge will be available to the public at http://www.weatherlink.com/user/hvracellaws4 site. Though a similar type of equipment is installed to collect information near Idukki dam, it is not useful to collect data of rainfall in Mullaperiyar due to distance.
The major threat for the newly installed gauge is from monkeys in the Periyar Tiger Reserve. All precautions have been taken to protect it from them, he said.
The team is also examining the seismometers installed in the district.
The team examined the basic facilities at the schools in the vulnerable areas of Periyar River in the wake of water level of Mullaperiyar dam remaining in the danger zone. The team would give a report to the government about the fund needed to provide permanent facility for relief camps.
Meanwhile, water level in Mullaperiyar dam was at 140.40 ft against its full level of 142 ft. Inflow into the dam was 544 Cubic Feet per Second (Cusecs) while outflow of water to Tamil Nadu was 2,100 cusecs. The dam had a total volume of 204 Million Cubic Metre (MCM) of water against its total capacity of 443.6 MCM.
There was no rain in the catchment area and Thekkady during the past 24 hours.