Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda on Monday said four districts – Kalaburagi, Bidar, Yadgir, and Vijayapura – have been put on high alert as they are expected to receive heavy rainfall over the next few days.
Mr. Gowda told reporters here that there was a 56% deficient rainfall in June, while the State has received more than normal rainfall in July. The rainfall deficiency has now declined to 14%. “We are constantly in touch with the Deputy Commissioners and have asked them to be on high alert,” he said.
In the last one week, coastal Karnataka, Malnad and north-interior Karnataka have received good rainfall, with the State receiving an overall of 80% rainfall, the Minister stated. From June 1 to July 24, rains claimed lives of 27 people and majority of deaths was due to lightning, he said.
In north-interior Karnataka, there has been 170% more rainfall than normal. Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Bidar, Belagavi, Bagalkot, Vijayapura and Gadag have been receiving heavy rainfall. The meteorological department has predicted good rainfall until July 28, and the next four days will be significant, he said.
In the event of water being released from Maharashtra’s Ujjani dam, there is a risk of the Bheema basin being flooded. The region has been put on high alert, Mr. Gowda said.
Meanwhile, reservoirs across the State have received excess inflow of 144 tmcft. On Sunday, 40 tmcft was stored. In the Cauvery basin, there is an inflow at the rate of 67,278 cusecs and outflow at the rate of 9,000 cusecs in Kabini and KRS reservoirs. In Malaprabha, Ghataprabha, Almatti, Narayanapura and Tungabhadra, inflow has been recorded at the rate of 2.61 lakh cusecs, Mr. Gowda said.
However, Bengaluru, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagara, Kolar, Chamarajanagar and Mandya districts have received rain deficiency till now.
Noting that the State government was unable to declare any taluk as drought-hit owing to the stringent guidelines of the Centre, he said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah would write to the Centre seeking relaxation of the guidelines. In 85 taluks, there was a 20% rainfall deficiency, Mr. Gowda said.
In 2016, the Centre formulated the drought guidelines. Under the existing drought declaration manual prepared by the Centre, he said taluks would be declared drought if they did not receive rains for continuous three weeks and had a deficiency of 60% of rains. Moreover, taluks would be declared drought only after the first week of August, based on the rainfall in June and July and after October 31, based on the rainfall during the south-west monsoon period.
