As a result of excess water released from upstream dams in Maharashtra and Telangana, seven districts in north Karnataka witnessed floods over the last three days. According to a preliminary report by Manoj Ranjan, Commissioner of Karnataka State Disaster Management, 7,776 people were relocated to 54 relief camps, from Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Raichur, Bidar, Belagavi, Bagalkot and Vijayapura districts, as of Thursday. The same report said that 799 houses have been partially damaged, and one house was completely damaged.
The National Disaster Relief Force, State Disaster Relief Force and Fire and Emergency Personnel were mobilised to rescue stranded persons. According to government records, there were no new deaths reported as of Thursday. However, large-scale damage to crops and property continue to be reported.
Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa will hold a review meeting with the Deputy Commissioners of all the flood-affected districts on Friday. He has instructed district officials to compensate all those affected by the floods.
“The rainfall intensity has reduced and has been focussed mostly in Vijayapura and Belagavi districts. Until Yesterday, the rains were pretty much concentrated in Kalaburagi, Bidar and Yadgir districts. By tomorrow we expect the rainfall to completely seize as the low-pressure system has moved westwards towards Maharashtra already,” GS Sreenivas Reddy, senior consultant with the state Disaster Management Authority, told TNM.
"Since today morning the rainfall has not been much. Due to the resultant rains since the start of the week, there is localised flooding in many areas. In Vijayapura, Doni river from Maharashtra flooded some villages and low-lying areas. In Belagavi, there are some areas on the bank of river Krishna which have been flooded due to excess release of water from the reservoirs. Much of the flooding is localised,” he added.