StoryInfinity for Daijiworld
Madikeri, Jun 14: With unrelenting monsoon continuing at Kodagu, the district administration has announced holiday for all the schools and colleges on June 14. Further, the traffic-flow has come to a grinding halt with major landslides and tree-falls at least at 25 different places. Especially, near the Kodagu-Kerala border, the torrential rains have snapped the power and water supply in the region for over 5-days.
The rainfall has been tormenting especially the North and Central parts of Kodagu. Regions in the district like Napoklu, Bhagamandala, Virajpet Kasaba, Hudikeri, Srimangala, Shantalli, Nittoor, Ponnampet are among the areas receiving maximum rainfall. At Bhagamandala, the residents were ferried by authorities on boats.
Compared to last year’s monsoon, the rainfall measurement in the district has nearly doubled. While in January-June (2017) 406.66mm was recorded, this year during the reading by the district authorities have recorded 847.01mm of rainfall for the same period until Tuesday.
As of June 12, while the actual capacity of Harangi Reservoir is 2859 feet, it had already reached up to 2815.28 feet, the inflow of the water has risen by 7260 cusecs compared to 1352 cusecs last year.
Authorities expressing concern regarding over-flowing of Lakshmana Theertha River, along with other rivulets and have pressed in the services of boats to rescue the stranded people.
Reportedly, hectares of farmlands chiefly comprising of coffee and other commercial crops have been affected due to the continuous downpour and is hurting the interest of the farming community. Several vehicles were also destroyed due to tree-fall.
On Wednesday midnight, several vehicles that were waiting for the landslide to be cleared on Iritty (Kannur)- Makutta (Kodagu) State Highway were washed away due to the overflowing Makutta river. Although authorities were successful in timely convincing many people to abandon their vehicles and evacuate from the area by foot, a body of a person hailing from Kochi who was one of the occupant of the vehicle has been retrieved.
Subsequently, in the interest of public safety, Deputy Commissioner of Kodagu PI Sreevidya under Section 115 Motor Vehicle Act 1988 and Karnataka Motor Vehicle Rules 1989 (Amendment Code 1990) and as per Rule 221 A (5) has banned traffic movement from Makutta to Perumbadi until July 12. "The travellers alternatively can use Gonikoppa-Ponnampet-Srimangala-Kutta road," the DC's order said.
Ganji Kendra
The residents of at-least 180 houses in the low lying areas at Karadigodu in Siddapura, (Virajpet) have been notified by the Kodagu district administration to vacate on priority basis, since the water-levels at Kaveri river has been rising. In the midst of rain for the past 12-days, at Siddapura, the authorities have also set-up Ganji-Kendra at government school that provide meals and shelter for the needy.
The relief efforts are being actively coordinated between police, fire-personnel, CESCOM linemen are coordinating distribution of kerosene oil, food parcels at the areas to those who have been stranded.