Floods claim two lives in north Karnataka

Two persons were washed away in north Karnataka, where the flood situation turned grim due to the rising water level in Bhima and Krishna rivers.

According to reports reaching here, two persons – one each from Gulbarga and Bagalkot districts – were washed away in the floods, forcing the authorities to sound a flood alert across north Karnataka in the wake of unabated discharge of water from the reservoirs in neighbouring Maharashtra.

Officials said Ravikumar Prasad, a 24-year-old youth, was drowned in the swirling waters of Krishna river in Gulbarga’s Surpur taluk when he was trying to remove the irrigation pump set from his agricultural field. Ravikumar Prasad’s father, who was assisting his son to remove the irrigation pump set, reported the matter to the authorities.

In Bagalkot district, an unidentified man jumped into a river near Rabkavi without heeding to the warning of local people. He was not traced and feared drowned, authorities said.

The flood situation in five districts of north Karnataka – Belgaum, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Raichur and Bagalkot – turned grim with rivers Bhima and Krishna flowing in spate and threatening to inundate more villages along their banks.

The swollen rivers of Bhima and Krishna have already marooned hundreds of villages in the five districts, forcing the authorities to take up a mass evacuation of people from marooned the partially submerged villages. Standing crop on thousands of acres of land had been deluged in the flood waters.

The collapse of bridges in a few areas and their submergence under water in other areas had thrown transportation out of gear. Life was disrupted in many areas along the banks of river Bhima and Krishna in all the five districts of north Karnataka. Communication and transport remained cut off to many marooned villages.

The local authorities had deployed boats to evacuate people from flooded areas. More such boats had been sought from Karwar district in coastal Karnataka to shift the inhabitants of villages under the threat of inundation, officials said.

During the last three days, more than 7,000 people have been shifted to safer places and rehabilitated in make-shift relief camps.