Fresh flood fury hits north Karnataka

Several parts of northern Karnataka were reeling under fresh flood fury with the discharge of excess water from reservoirs built across river Krishna in Maharashtra as well as Karnataka claiming a total of nine lives and marooning more than 300 villages.

With the river Krishna and its tributaries flowing above the danger mark, large scale inundation was witnessed in the districts of Belgaum, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bijapur, Bagalkote and lately Bellary.

More than a 100,000 people living in villages along the banks of rivers had been shifted to safer places. But, standing crops on thousands of acres of land had been ruined. Farmers are also complaining of losing their livestock, comprising buffaloes, sheep, goat and poultry.

After Maharashtra discharged millions of cusecs of water from its dams since the last few days, irrigation authorities in downstream Karnataka were forced to open the crest gates of its major reservoirs at Almatti, Nagarjunasagar, Narayanapura and Tungabhadra.

The authorities have issued a red alert to people residing downstream of the reservoirs. Boats and rafters had been deployed in the affected areas to evacuate people to safer places.

Though the authorities have opened hundreds of relief centers for the benefit of people displaced in the floods, farmers in many parts of north Karnataka were complaining about inadequate relief measures.

With the flood waters submerging roads, movement of vehicular traffic had also come to a stand-still in many parts of Belgaum, Bellary and Bagalkot districts.