VELLORE, TIRUVANNAMALAI: Certain parts of Vellore district have been affected by flooding and inundation due to heavy downpour bringing copious flow and discharge of huge quantity of water from an Andhra Pradesh reservoir.
As many as 30,000 cusecs of water from Kalavagunda reservoir located in Chittoor district was discharged leading to swelling of Ponnai river in Vellore district.
Flood warning was issued to 14 villages in Gudiyatham Taluk on Thursday late evening and evacuation drive was started by the government authorities.
Top officers, including Vellore district collector A Shanmuga Sundaram, SP S Slevakumar and Gudiyatham RDO M Sheik Mansoor camped in Gudiyatham to take stock of the situation.
Threat of flooding loomed large over several villages, including Pavadaithope, Nellorepet, Santhaipet and Indra Nagar, forcing the authorities to evacuate the people from low lying areas.
According to Shanmuga Sundaram, “679 persons including 328 women and 105 children were evacuated and accommodated at five relief centres in Gudiyatham.”
“Of them, 353 are accommodated at Sri Saraswathi School, 195 in Little Lakshmi Theatre, 64 at municipal elementary school, Thalayatham, 30 at the Gangaiamman temple mandapam and 37 at the municipal higher secondary school in Gudiyatham town,” he added.
The Mordhana dam in Gudiyatham is brimming after reaching full level of 37.72 feet. More than 9,000 cusecs of water is being discharged from the reservoir.
About 46,000 cusecs of water has been flowing down on Palar river with 42,000 cusecs discharged through Palar Anaicut located near Walaja and another 4,000 cusecs diverted through canals connecting the river, officials of Water Resources Department (WRD) said.
Tamil Nadu Minister for Commercial Taxes and Registration, KC Veeramani, visited flood-hit areas in Vellore and Ranipet districts on Friday and distributed relief materials to the affected people.
The Andiappanur Odai reservoir in Tirupathur district has reached 24.60 feet against the full level of 26.24 feet. Flood warning has been issued to people residing in low lying areas.
Ranipet district collector AR Gladstone Pushparaj has issued flood warning to people residing in low lying areas as the Ponnai and Palar rivers are in spate.
Cheyyar river brims
In Tiruvannamalai district, Cheyyar river has swelled due to copious flow of water from Kamandala Naganathi owing to discharge from Shenbagathope dam and heavy downpour.
Besides the Cheyyar river, 35 major water tanks maintained by WRD are in full flow in the district.
“Thirty five tanks have been overflowing with water level touching 100 per cent. Thirty other tanks have water level between 75 per cent and 100 per cent with chances of overflowing,” A Mahendran, executive engineer of WRD, told TNIE.
He added that 140 tanks have reached up to 75 per cent level and 195 tanks have up to 50 per cent water level while 295 tanks have water 25 per cent and below.
Thanks to overflowing of Cheyyar river, two major anaicuts in Cheyyar and Thandarai have been brimming and water from Thandarai anaicut is bringing copious flow into Mamandur tank.
However, one of the major rivers Thenpennai river in Tiruvannamalai district has not received significant flow of water.