The Kuppam police on Wednesday morning alerted the residents of over 50 villages along the Palar River in Kuppam, Shantipuram and V. Kota mandals following the lifting of 28 gates of Bethamangalam Reservoir in neighbouring Karnataka during the last 24 hours.
Circle Inspector M. Rajasekhar, who led a team of 50 police personnel from the three vulnerable mandals since Tuesday night, said the river course runs through a 50-km stretch in Kuppam Assembly Constituency. “By Wednesday evening, the waters from the reservoir touched the entry point at Palar river at Kongatam in V. Kota mandal. The flow is expected to be much and even violent by the early hours of Thursday. We have issued alert to people not to venture close to the riverbed, and avoid crossing the stretch till further development. Police personnel have been posted at all points on the banks which are prone to surge of waters to check people from going close to the river,” he said.
The Palar, which went dry 20 years ago, is seen flowing with copious inflows due to heavy rains in Kuppam region, coupled with downpour in Nandi Hills and Kolar in Karnataka, and the waters joining the river. About 8,000 people, mostly farmer families, live along the hamlets close to the river course in the constituency, in addition to the agriculture fields abutting the banks.