The Central Water Commission on Tuesday has issued an advisory flood warning in downstream areas along the Cauvery in Tamil Nadu, as the Mettur dam is fast filling up due to heavy rains in Karnataka. The
rainfall in the Cauvery catchment area in Kodagu (in Karnataka), particularly, has caused massive inflow into the Krishna Raja Sagara Dam as well as the Kabini Dam. This, in turn, is being released into the Mettur dam located in Salem district, Tamil Nadu.
The letter has been issued to the Collectors of Salem, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Namakkal, Karur, Trichy, Ariyalur, Tiruvarur, Tanjavur, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam and Erode.
The collectors have been asked to take suitable precautionary steps and inform downstream areas of the release. This includes preventing people from bathing to taking selfies along the banks or in the river. Farmers have been advised to take care of the wellbeing of the animals while transporting them across waterways during release period.
The advisory has further instructed the collectors to evacuate the people in the low lying areas along the banks of Cauvery, Coleroon and tail end reaches of Bhavani and Amaravathi if required and deploy inter-departmental zonal teams, SDRF trained police and Disaster Response Guards as needed.
According to the Regional Meterological Department in Chennai, light to moderate rain is likely to occur at isolated places over Tamil Nadu until the end of this week. The weather bullet-in issued by the department on Tuesday said that the sky condition is likely to be generally cloudy. "Rain or thundershower is likely to occur in some areas. Maximum and minimum temperatures are likely to be around 36 and 28 deg Celsius respectively," it said. However there is no heavy rainfall warning for the State.