Rain clouds continued to hover over rural parts of Coimbatore district on Thursday and many places received moderate showers.
Pilloor reservoir shutters were opened in the early hours of Thursday after the water level touched the 97-feet mark of the full reservoir level of 100 feet. Sources said that the water flow into the reservoir was 10,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs) early on Thursday morning. Around 3 a.m. on Thursday, shutters were raised to release 10,000 cusecs of water into River Bhavani. Revenue and the police issued alerts in the region prior to the release of water. The inflow and release increased to 14,000 cusecs a few hours later.
River Noyyal swelled after catchments areas in the Siruvani region received continuous showers. Ukkulam tank at Semmedu, the first tank in the Noyyal river basin, swelled in the impact of the rain. Around 9 a.m. on Thursday, one side of the tank bund broke and water flowed into the adjacent field inundating about 20 acres.
“Of the 20 acres, shallots were being raised in four acres. The crop was damaged completely after being inundated by the overflown water. The tank bund was not strengthened enough when the water body was desilted in 2017. The bund breaks during the rainy season every year since then,” said Vijayakumar, a farmer. He said that farmers hired an earthmover to close the breakage.
Places such as Valparai, Pollachi, Anamalai, Aliyar, Siruvani and Sirumugai received mild to moderate rain on Thursday.
Coimbatore district registered a total rainfall of 453.4 mm and average rainfall of 32.39 mm in the 24 hours that ended at 8 a.m. on Thursday according to the district administration.
The rainfall recorded in other places during the 24 hours period were: Valparai PAP 78 mm, Sholayar 92 mm, Valparai taluk 78 mm, Chinnakallar 102 mm, Cinchona 74 mm, Aliyar 10 mm, Pollachi 16 mm, Coimbatore airport 0.9 mm and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University 2.5 mm.
Erode Staff Reporter adds:
With inflow continue to be over 13,500 cusecs, water level at Bhavani Sagar Dam crossed 90 feet here on Thursday afternoon.
At 12 noon, water level stood at 90.02 feet against the full reservoir level of 105 feet while the storage was 21.599 tmc against the capacity of 32.800 tmc.
Discharge was 800 cusecs in Arakankottai and Thadapalli Canals and 200 cusecs in River Bhavani.
Public Works Department officials said that rainfall in the catchment areas led to the inflow increasing from 6,276 cusecs at 4 a.m. to 13,501 at noon.
