Heavy rain lashed most parts of Belagavi district on Wednesday, causing some damage.
A farmer’s house collapsed in Bhojagaon village near Belagavi, but none was injured. A tree fell on the road, blocking traffic for some time between Triveni Circle and Rani Channamma Circle.
Water entered houses in low-lying areas, including Hindalga, the Old Fruit Market, B.S. Yeddiyurappa Road, Maratha Colony, Nanawadi Road and Bovi Galli, in the Old City.
Karnataka State Disaster Management Centre has included Belagavi district in the orange zone, following forecast of heavy rain for 48 hours starting from Wednesday morning.
Irrigation officers said that around 7,000 cusecs of water entered the Ghataprabha after Maharashtra released water from upstream reservoirs on Tuesday night. However, there is no immediate threat of floods.
The Raja Lakhamagouda Reservoir on the Ghataprabha at Hidkal received an inflow at a rate of 7,558 cusecs and the authorities discharged water at a rate 87 cusecs. The dam with a gross capacity of 51 tmcft has 9 tmcft of water now.
The Renuka Sagar Dam on the Malaprabha registered outflow at a rate of194 cusecs and zero inflow. The dam with a gross capacity of 37.73 tmcft has around 12 tmcft of water now.
Five teams from the State Disaster Relief Force have been stationed along the Krishna and the Ghataprabha river course in different taluks. “A refresher training course was held for personnel at Kote Kere in Belagavi last year. They will be pressed into service once the water levels begin reaching danger levels,’’ a Revenue Department officer said.
India Meteorological Department has declared red alerts for Goa, Konkan Maharashtra and the coastal districts of Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in the State. Belagavi is among the districts with an orange alert, along with Dharwad, Haveri, Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Kodagu and Shivamogga, according to Joint Director of Agriculture Shivanagouda Patil.
Throughout the day
Meanwhile many parts of Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru and Hassan districts in the Malnad region received moderate to heavy rain. The average minimum temperature was around 20.4 degrees Celsius in these districts, as it continued to rain throughout the day.
According to the Meteorological Department, there was heavy rain in Agumbe, Thalaguppa, Hunchadakatte in Shivamogga district and Kottigehara, Kalasa, Jayapura and Balehonnur in Chikkamagaluru district. Following an increase in inflow at the Tunga dam at Gajanur, the outflow was increased to 18,000 cusecs. The reservoir, with a gross capacity of 3.24 tmcft, reached the full level on Monday itself. The inflow was 17,500 cusecs.
Inflow at Linganamakki Dam is also on the rise. On Wednesday, the water level stood at 1,777.6 ft against the full reservoir level of 1,819 ft. The inflow was 20,857 cusecs and the total discharge was 2,756 cusecs. The live storage has been measured at 50.71 tmcft against the total live storage of 151.64 tmcft.
As per Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, Shivamogga received an average of 45.3 mm of rainfall in 24 hours till 8.30 a.m. on Wednesday. This is against a normal of 19.8 mm. The highest of 141.5 mm was recorded at Honnetalu in Thirthahalli taluk.
Chikkamagaluru recorded 29.1 mm of rainfall, against a normal of 14.4 mm. The highest of 105.5 mm was recorded at Bettagere in Mudigere taluk. Hassan received an average rainfall 11.4 mm, against a normal of 6 mm. Kyamanahalli in Sakleshpur taluk recorded the highest of 111 mm.