As heavy rains and resultant floods have thrown life out of gear over the past week in several parts of Karnataka, data shows there has been an overall deficit of 5% rainfall for the entire state this year.
Normal rainfall is the average rainfall calculated over a period of 30 years. Eight districts have a more than 20% rainfall deficit; only five districts have rainfall above normal levels. The rainfall in the entire state for South West Monsoon season till date which is calculated starting from June 1 has seen 556 mm of rainfall across the state compared to the normal 536.8 mm.
In fact, seven of the 30 districts have more than 20% rainfall deficit, with Bengaluru Urban having the highest deficit of 37%. Even in the last seven days, there have been eight districts which have seen deficient rainfall.
According to the Met department, for the next two days there will be mostly heavy to very heavy rains in the three coastal districts of Udupi, Uttara Kannada and Dakshina Kannada. There will be moderate to heavy rains over North interior Karnataka districts, especially Belagavi and Dharwad.
“There will be relief from August 10 onwards, as we don’t expect much rainfall in the state or in Maharashtra (the upper riparian state). The rain is decreasing since yesterday anyway. We will see water receding and life getting back to normal only after that,” Subha Avinash, Project Scientist (Hydrology) at the KSNDMC said.
She added, “At this point, there is no threat of dams reaching the full reservoir level. In Ghataprabha, there is no flow from upstream, so Belagavi won’t be affected any further.”
In the Malnad region including Kodagu, there won’t be any flooding but there are chances of landslips when there is heavy rainfall, she said.
Till Thursday evening, 11 people have died in the state due to the floods mostly in Belagavi adjoining Maharashtra and Uttara Kannada district in the coast. Rescue teams of the army, air force, NDRF, SDRF along with local fire and are on the ground. More than 40,000 people have been moved away from low lying areas as a preventive measure.