Threat of Krishna basin getting flooded eases

The threat of flooding of the Krishna basin subsided slowly after reduced rainfall in Karnataka and reduced release of water from Maharashtra on Saturday

Rainfall stopped across Belagavi district by Saturday afternoon. This reduced the inflow into the rivers Hiranyakeshi and Markandeya and the rivulet of Ballari Nala. Their catchment area includes the city, Belagavi taluk and Khanapur taluk.

Reduced rainfall in Khanapur taluk also reduced the inflow into the Malaprabha. Inflow into the Naviluteertha dam on the Malaprabha reduced to around 14,000 cusecs by Saturday evening. The outflow was increased to 6,500 cusecs. The dam with a capacity of 37 tmcft now has around 27 tmcft of water.

Maharashtra reduced the release of water into the Krishna and its tributaries. Officials managed the water levels in the Krishna by increasing the outflow from the Almatti dam to 2.2 lakh cusecs.

Irrigation Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi told media in Chikkodi that Maharashtra had not released water from Koyna dam as it was only around three-fourths full. Officials told him that the Koyna in Maharashtra had only around 71 tmcft of water as against its capacity of 100 tmcft. Hidkal dam on the Ghataprabha near Gokak has 43 tmcft of water against its capacity of 51 tmcft. Inflow into the dam reduced to 42,000 cusecs on Saturday.

Eight dams on the tributaries of the Krishna like Doodha Ganga, Veda Ganga and Ghataprabha are still under water. But they are expected to open up for traffic if there is no rainfall in the next 72 hours, officers said.