Heavy rains: Sea erosion intensifies on Karnataka’s coastline

MANGALURU: Though it was an almost rainless day in the Coast, the heavy rains in the past couple of days saw the shores ravaged by sea erosion, which destroyed some roads and took chunks of land into the sea in many areas of the coast. Officials have been on foot all day to assess the damage and vulnerable spots.
The severity of the erosion was severe in Someshwar where the road leading to Battapady road was washed off in the middle section. Dr K V Rajendra, deputy commissioner along with officials visited the area to take stock of the situation and assess the damage. Bharath Shetty, Mangaluru City North MLA along with officials visited the Tanirbhavi area as sea erosion had intensified at the estuary mouth. Even in Udupi district sea erosion has increased in certain areas of the coastline. Revenue Minister R Ashoka who visited the Udupi coastline on Friday said there were 13 vulnerable spots that were sea erosion prone and permanent works would be undertaken to mitigate the problem at the earliest. He directed Udupi Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer to expeditiously disburse second and third stage relief to help those who lost houses to re-build them soon. There was a mudslide at Kukkupuni Nidpalli village in Puttur Taluk on Kaudichar-Renja road on Friday and officials were working hard to restore traffic normalcy on that road. In Malavanthige village of Belthangady taluk, the family of Siddik was left without a roof as the gusty winds blew off the roof top sheets.
Though the coastline did not receive much rainfall, the interior areas of the Coast received moderate rainfall with gusty winds since Thursday night. Major problem experienced in the rural areas was rising water levels in the river. The water level in the Nethravathi River at Bantwal was still a meter reaching the danger level of 8.5 meters like Thursday and the Nethravathi River at Uppinangady was also close to the danger level at 28 meters, with danger level being 31.5 meters. But the Kumaradhara River at Uppinangady was at 26.5 meters, close to breach the danger level which is 27 meters.
The Mangalore Electricity Company (Mescom) had a satisfying day restoring power in all parts of the district, though Thursday night saw another 18 poles suffer damage in Mundaje of Belthangady. Mescom officials said all poles were fixed and power lines were drawn and restored in Vittla, Belthangady, Sullia, Puttur and Moodbidri. .
On the Coast, Udupi received the highest amount of rainfall at 68mm, followed by Dakshina Kannada at 54mm and Uttara Kannada at 53mm. The rainfall Uttara Kannada District received in the last 24 hours was 89 more than the average rainfall that the district recorded for the day. Similarly, Udupi district received 92% excess amount of rainfall and for DK, it was 91% excess than the average recorded for the day.
In the last 24 hours till Friday 8.30am, DK District received an average of 54 mm of rainfall, with Sullia taluk receiving the highest rainfall at 80mm. The next taluk Belthangady with 73mm. Puttur, Mangaluru and Bantwal taluks received 57mm, 17mm and 21mm of rainfall respectively.
KSNMDC bulletin stated high waves in the range of 3.5 - 5.6 meters were forecast till August 8 along the coast of Karnataka from Mangaluru to Karwar. It also stated that strong winds/ squally weather with speed reaching 50-60 kmph was likely to prevail along and off Karnataka coast and advised fishermen not to venture into these areas.