About 150 people were rescued from the Kodichikkanahalli area in Bengaluru on Friday following heavy rains that led to artificial flooding.
According to rescue personnel of the Karnataka Fire Safety and Rescue department, they began operations in the area at 10 am and had rescued people by boat. Where people were stranded, they distributed milk, water and food packets.
By evening, water had begun to drain out, but the lowest was still about 2 feet at the outer levels where it was about 4 feet in the morning. But rescue personnel said that in the interiors water was much higher. Cars and motorbikes were submerged in those areas.
Residents of the area told The News Minute that such high levels of inundation were rare, that this was the first time in a decade that waters rose so high.
BBMP Commissioner who was inspecting the area told The News Minute that
Removed debris – storm watter drains blocked. 1,650 encroachments in whole city, cleared 850.
Vijaya colony – 2005 last tiem this happened.
100mm
Phanindar, a resident, said that electricity had been shut off from 5 am and that he had not seen such flooding in the three-and-a-half years he had lived there.
Suryana Narayana who has lived in Anugraha Enclave for the past three years said that usually only the roads were slightly flooded in the monsoons. “This year the lake has overflown. Also, the main road is at a higher level than our road, so all the water collects here. We had requested that the connection from main drainage to our sewers be blocked, so that the sewage inflow would not occur. Otherwise, sewage too would flow into these areas.”
He says that people in the neighbouring Duo Enclave had built houses haphazardly, blocking the raja kaluv. At present, there is a stay on the removal of the encroachment. “They aren’t cooperating with encroachment clearance. If the connectivity between the main lakes is cleared, then there will be no flooding.,” Surya Narayana said.
Another resident, Rajendra kumar said the forest department had constructed a bund to keep out sewage and rain water from the Madiwala lake. “But because of that, the water from here is not able to flow out smoothly. In the past 15 years, there’s been heavy rain 5-6 times, but this time the magnitude is higher because the raja kaluve is blocked. In any case, at any time, the capacity of the storm water drains is reduced because 50% of the space in it is filled with silt. Obviously there will be flooding.”
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