The Cauvery Neeravari Nigama Limited in Karnataka has issued a flood alert, warning residents living downstream of the Kabini reservoir in Mysuru's HD Kote and asking them to move to safer locations. The alert was issued on Tuesday and it stated that the outflow of the reservoir will be increased to nearly 20,000 cusecs by evening. This will be done in anticipation of an increase in inflow in the next 24 hours.
The increase is expected due to heavy rains in the upstream areas of the dam and the catchment area of Kabini, which includes the Wayanad region of Kerala. The reservoir is yet to reach its full capacity and the water level was at 2,279 feet on Tuesday morning. The full reservoir level of the dam is 2,284 feet.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre has issued a forecast for widespread moderate to heavy rains in the coastal region of the state this week. The KSNDMC also predicted that very heavy to extremely heavy rains are likely to occur in isolated areas of Udupi, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada districts. Widespread light to moderate rains are predicted in north interior Karnataka including in Dharwad, Haveri and Kalburgi districts.
Moderate rains were predicted in Davanagere, Mysuru and Ramanagara districts. Similarly, light rains were predicted in Chitradurga, Tumakuru, Mandya, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Chamarajanagara, Bengaluru Rural and Bengaluru Urban districts.
Earlier this week, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said that a monsoon trough is likely to shift southwards and strengthen during the next three to four days and lash Goa, coastal Karnataka and Kerala with widespread rainfall.
The IMD has also stated that an orange alert would continue on August 5 and 6 in six districts of neighboring Kerala; Idukki, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod. Heavy rainfall was also reported in Mumbai and its suburbs on Monday leading to waterlogging in the city and disruption of the local train system.