Krishna flowing at dangerous level; half of Kurnool town inundated
Several towns and villages in the state, particularly in Kurnool, Mahabubnagar and Krishna districts, have been inundated with the mighty Krishna river and its tributaries in spate for the past two days.
All the reservoirs built across the Krishna river are receiving heavy inflows and their gates have been opened to discharge water downstream. The Srisailam reservoir is receiving an inflow of 1.3 million cusecs (cubic feet per second) and 11 out of its 12 gates have been opened discharging 1.1 million cusecs of water into the Nagarjunasagar dam. From Nagarjunasagar 650,000 cusecs is being released to Prakasam barrage at Vijayawada.
“The flood situation is very grim,” chief minister, K Rosaiah, said adding that there was a possibility of the water level going up further by Friday midnight . He said that such an inflow of water into Srisailam reservoir was unprecedented. The previous highest inflow into the reservoir was 799,000 cusecs on October 16, 1998.
However, he said, there was no threat to the Srisailam dam. The present level of the dam is 884.4 feet and the water level is expected to go up by another eight feet by tomorrow. The full storage level of the dam is 885 feet
With Tungabhadra also in spate, nearly half of the Kurnool town has been inundated. The famous Mantrayalam temple has submerged. Over 25,000 people in Kurnool town alone have been stranded in water. According to unofficial reports, the floods has so far claimed the lives of 27 people across the state.
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Rosaiah, who is constantly reviewing the situation, said Kurnool was the worst affected. With Krishna flowing at dangerous level and a huge volume of water being discharged through Nagarjunasagar, the flood situation in Vijayawada was likely to worsen. Officials were making arrangements for evacuation of a lakh of people from low lying areas of the three districts.
He said that Army had been alerted. Five troops were sent to Kurnool and Mahabubnagar districts. Six helicopters, including four for Kurnool and two for Mahabubnagar, were kept ready to meet any eventuality. Six power boats have also been sent for the two districts.
Rosaiah said the government has sought helicopters from Karnataka to carry out rescue operations.
At the request of the chief minister, the Tamil Nadu-based National Disaster Response Force is sending 120 personnel to both the districts along with inflatable boats. The services of the AP Special Police have also been requisitioned and kept at the disposal of the district collectors.
On the other hand, the filling up of the major reservoirs in the state is likely to give a boost to agricultural operations during the ensuing Rabi season. The state has received deficit rainfall during the kharif season and 981 of the 1,128 mandals have been declared drought-hit. The cropped area has declined by 32 per cent to 5.3 million hectares compared with the kharif season’s normal sown area of 7.9 million hectares.
The fresh inflows into the reservoirs is now raising hopes that the loss incurred during the kharif season could now be offset to a certain extent in the rabi season.
Indications are that the area under cultivation in the rabi season is likely to be more than the normal sown area of 4 million hectares.