BENGALURU: Heavy rain and flooding, which wreaked havoc in many districts of the state on Friday, claimed three lives, while two people are missing and are feared dead. The heavy rain also triggered landslides in several places.
Normal life was affected in Belagavi, Uttara Kannada, Shivamogga, Haveri, Chikkamagalur, Hassan, Dharwad, Davangere, Kodagu and several other districts due to incessant rain and flooding. A Navy chopper and Indian Coast Guard (ICG) personnel assisted the local authorities in rescue operations near Ankola.
In Uttara Kananda, which was among the worst-hit districts, the Coast Guard personnel rescued 161 people stranded in islands. Two people died in separate incidents in Uttara Kananda, and a 60-year-old farmer died after his house collapsed due to incessant rains in Chikkamagaluru. In Uttara Kannada, two people were washed away after a rescue boat capsized in Gangavali river. The search operation was called off on Friday evening.
Landslides, triggered by heavy rain in the ghats, resulted in the derailment of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus Express Special Train from Mangaluru to Mumbai between Dudhsagar and Sonaulim stations. However, all passengers were safe and sent back to Madgaon. Train services on the route were hampered.
Thousands of people were evacuated as the government sounded a flood alert in many districts. After incessant rainfall in catchment areas in Maharashtra, many rivers are in spate.
NDRF teams to help local authorities
As the situation is likely to aggravate, with incessant rain likely to continue for the next three days, NDRF teams have been deployed in Raichur, Belagavi, Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts and two additional teams of NDRF have been deployed in Shivamogga and Belagavi districts. Traffic movement in several parts of the state was disrupted after roads were inundated with rainwater while standing crops across large swathes were damaged.
Several bridges, government buildings and houses have sustained damage while nearly 300 km of roads have been washed away. In Chikkamagalur, the Abbugudige bridge was washed away by swirling waters. In Kodagu, the Murnad-Napoklu, Kakkabe- Igguthappa Temple and Yadapala- Kadanga roads have been cut off after water rose to 4 feet on the roads.
Napoklu area is likely to be isolated if rains continue. Bhagamandala recorded 165.4 mm rainfall and the roads have been flooded up to 3-feet high. Several roads, including some stretches of NH-4 and NH-4A, were inundated, hampering vehicular traffic in Belagavi. Several vehicles on NH- 4, which connects to Pune, were stranded near Nipani due to heavy rainfall since Thursday. Revenue Minister and Vice- Chairman of the Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority, R Ashoka, said many areas in Uttara Kannada district reported over 300 mm of rainfall in a span of 24 hours.
Dogri village in Ankola taluk witnessed a record 541 mm of rainfall while many areas in Sirsi taluk reported 400 mm of rainfall, the minister said. The rain has also led to most of the reservoirs in Karnataka, including the Almatti, Bhadra, KRS, Kabini, Harangi, Hemavathi, Narayanapura, Malaprabha and Ghataprabha, filling up. Water storage in 13 major reservoirs went up to 561.42 tmcft, which was 65 per cent of the total storage capacity, the minister said, adding that water levels in reservoirs increased by over 42 tmcft in the last 24 hours.