Two washed away in floods in Karnataka

Two persons were washed away in the floods that caused by a rise in the water level of Kapila river flowing through the temple towns of Nanjangud and T Narsipur in south Karnataka.

Even as the Irrigation authorities issued a flood warning asking people residing along the banks of river Kapila to move to safer places, a priest who went to bathe in the river at T Narspura was drowned. A beggar on the banks of Kapila in Nanjangud was also washed away in the water.

With the catchment area of river Kapila in Wynad region of Kerala receiving heavy rainfall, the authorities were forced to discharge more than 40,000 cusecs of water from the Kabini reservoir into the river. Several parts of the temple town of Nanjangud remained submerged under the water.

Meanwhile, the discharge of 80,000 cusecs of water from KRS reservoir built across river Cauvery had flooded the famous Ranganathittu bird sanctuary near Srirangapatna.

Though the authorities, as a precautionary measure, suspended boating operations at the bird sanctuary, the nests and young ones of exotic birds like Open Stork Bills and White Ibis were washed away in the flood waters.

The Government authorities had established gruel centres at Nanjangud and T Narsipur in Mysore district.