It has been nearly a week since north Karnataka districts in the Krishna basin are experiencing floods, throwing life out of gear in over 500 villages, especially in Belagavi district that shares border with Maharashtra.
Over 43,000 people have been displaced, several hundred bridges are under water, stretches of highways damaged, and nine lives lost across the State so far.
What started as a low intensity flooding owing to release of water from seven reservoirs across the Krishna and its tributaries because of abnormal rainfall in the Krishna river basin and Warna river basin in Maharashtra on the intervening night of August 1 and 2, eventually engulfed nearly 1.5 lakh hectares of fertile land as flood was accompanied by very heavy rainfall across Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Yadgir, and Raichur districts.
Dispelling coordination issues between the two States, a top Water Resources Department official claimed that both the States had coordinated well when the rainfall started in Maharashtra. “Maharashtra had informed about the imminent release of water from Koyna. But heavy rainfall in Belagavi threw our plan out of the window,” the official said.
So far, Maharashtra has let out water at the rate of 25 lakh cusecs or over 200 tmcft. in just about a week, while Belagavi district that has the Western Ghat range received 315 mm of rainfall in the last one week alone.
While the Central Water Commission-managed Rajapur barrage across the Krishna near Karnataka-Maharashtra border controls water flow into the Hipparagi reservoir in Bagalkot in Karnataka, the vast quantum could not be controlled at Rajapur leading to a water build-up at Hipparagi and Almatti reservoirs in the downstream.
This backwater flooding affected large areas in the neighbouring Belagavi district too. According to the district administration, the Krishna is flowing four to five feet higher than normal owing to backwater flooding in Hippargi and Almatti in Bagalkot district, and Narayanpur reservoir in Yadgir district.
Meanwhile, high intensity rainfall in the catchment of the Malaprabha river, which is part of the five river Warna basin, has quickly filled the Navilu Tirtha reservoir also in Belagavi leading to flooding in several parts of the district along the Malaprabha banks. Incidentally, while the Malaprabha joins the Krishna at Koodalasangama, the Ghataprabha joins the Krishna near Almatti increasing the water flow causing severe backwater flooding.
Flooding of villages and towns along the banks of the Krishna and Malaprabha across five districts starting from Belagavi to Raichur was also partly owing to the fact that several habitations are situated close to the waterbodies and are almost at the river level. The backwater flooding is a major reason of floods in habitations, many of which have been moved to newer and safer areas. “People still live in old habitations that are prone to floods,” said an officer.