Several areas in Karnataka witnessed heavy rainfall and flooding on Friday. Life in Kodagu district has come to a standstill and over 3,000 people are stranded and are awaiting help. In Mysuru district and Mangaluru, several areas have been inundated.
In Mysuru, the incessant rains and release of surplus water from Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) and Kabini reservoirs, has resulted in floods across several areas of the district. Machhuru, Vadakanamala, DB Kupppe in Heggadadevanakote taluk were completely submerged and people were moved to relief camps.
Kempaiah Hundi and the Nanjangueshwara Temple in Nanjangud too were flooded as the Kapila river overflowed. The Nanjangud-Chamarajanagara bypass road was also completely inundated and traffic flow has been cut off on the stretch.
Late on Thursday night, a fisherman who had fallen off his boat and was swimming towards the shore for 6 hours was finally rescued by a Liberian merchant vessel and the New Mangalore Port Trust.
The fisherman Nagaraj, a native of Tamil Nadu, accidentally went overboard from his boat 'Krishna Maruthi' on Thursday and his crew members did not notice that he had fallen off.
The crew later noticed that Nagaraj was missing a few hours after he dropped into the sea and sounded an alert to other boats and the local police.
The mishap occurred 20 nautical miles off Panambur beach in Mangaluru. A Liberian vessel which was passing by the shipping lanes rescued Nagaraj from drowning six hours after he fell into the water.
Captain SR Patnaik, Deputy Conservator of NMPT, decided that it would be too late for the coast guard to reach Nagaraj and guided the Liberian merchant ship “MT Pacific Lagoon” to Nagaraj’s location.
The Liberian vessel then took a detour and came to the NMPT pier and rescued Nagaraj, who had been swimming towards the shore for the past six hours.
In Koppala district, river Tungabhadra is overflowing after 10 years. The Tungabhadra Dam on Friday released 2.22 lakh cusecs of water.
Around 25 villages in Koppala’s Kampli and Siruguppa taluks have been submerged due to the overflow, including the Kampli bridge, which has cut off one of the major transportation routes to other areas.
The water flow has been extremely rapid and even check dams built by Vijayanagara kings in the region are overflowing, officials at the Kampli Tahsidar’s office said.
With the massive flooding, NH-49, which links Kampli to Siruguppa has been inundated and transport routes between the two taluks have been cut off.
Several bridges connecting Kampli and Gangavathi, and Narihalla and Itagi have been submerged for the second consecutive day.
The overflow of river Tungabhadra also inundated several areas in Haveri and Gadag districts.
Crops in Haveri’s Guttal and Kumarapatna and Gadag’s Vitlapu and Bidarahalli were completely destroyed after the water from the Singtalur Lift Irrigation project’s barrage was released. All residents were evacuated to safer areas.
Meanwhile, the floods have abated in Chikkamagaluru and people who were lodged in relief camps have been sent home after the rainfall slowed down on Friday.