Mass evacuation of people from flood-hit Belgaum

More than 21,000 people and close to 10,000 heads of cattle had been evacuated from the banks of river Krishna in Karnataka’s Belgaum district since the last four days due to widespread inundation of villages in the wake of discharge of excess water from the reservoirs of neighbouring Maharashtra.

According to officials, more than 60 villages in the border district of Belgaum had been either marooned or partially submerged in the flood waters, forcing the authorities to take up mass evacuation of people to safer places.

With the discharge of excess of water from Koyna reservoir in Maharashtra’s Satara district exceeding 150,000 cusecs every day since the last four days, not only have villages situated along the banks of river the swollen river Krishna been inundated, even bridges along the highways have been submerged, disrupting movement of vehicles in the region.

The flood water had also entered many agricultural fields, ruining standing crops on thousands of acres of land. The district administration has declared a holiday for all schools and colleges in Belgaum as normal life remained disrupted to the floods.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy is expected to carry out an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas of Belgaum and other parts of north Karnataka.

Apart from Belgaum, four other districts of north Karnataka – Gulbarga, Raichur, Bagalkot and Bijapur are reeling under the floods, caused on account of the release of water from reservoirs in Maharashtra.

So far, two persons have been washed away in the floods in Gulbarga and Bagalkot districts. A youth from Surpur taluk of Gulbarga was washed away in the Krishna river when he was trying to remove the irrigation pump set from his agricultural field. The deceased has been identified as 24-year-old Ravikumar Prasad.

One unidentified person is also feared to have been washed away in the Krishna river near Rabkavi in Bagalkot. The person jumped into the river without heeding to the warning of local people. The authorities tried to trace the missing person, but in vain