Three village residents out of the 30 were rescued from Madargaddi, an island formed by Krishna River in Lingasugur taluk on Friday.
The residents of Madargaddi initially refused to vacate their island as they had cattle and agriculture crops to take care of. After much persuasion from the district administration, they finally agreed. Rescue boat with trained personnel was sent to the island by 2 p.m. on Friday.
The rescue operation delayed as the boat carrying three village residents and the rescue personnel developed technical problem and got stuck right in the middle of the overflowing river for three hours. The personnel somehow managed to tie the boat to a tree in the small island. The rescue operation resumed after faulty machine of the boat was replaced.
Deputy Commissioner S.N. Nagaraju and Superintendent of Police S.B. Bisnalli were supervising the rescue operations.
“Since over 2.5 lakh cusecs of water is released from Narayanpur dam, we had decided to shift the people in Madargaddi. Initially they refused to be shifted. After much persuasion, we convinced them and shifted three out of the 30 of them. The island will not get submerged till 3.5 lakh cusecs water is released. We will continue the rescue operation after observing the water-level in the river,” Mr. Nagaraju told The Hindu .
“We have four boats for rescue operations in the district. The one which we were using today developed technical problem thanks to which the rescue operation was delayed. We will fix the problem and resume the operation,” Mr. Bisnalli said.
The water-level in Krishna River was alarmingly increasing after 2.53 lakh cusecs of water had been released from Narayanpur Reservoir on Friday morning. Anticipating the danger of the floods, the district administration tired to shift the 30 village residents belonging to four families that are residing on the island for several years.
