Parts of north Karnataka experienced moderate to heavy rain in the last few days, with Bidar, Vijayapura, and Belagavi witnessing downpour on Monday and Tuesday. But the rain subsided by Wednesday.
Bidar seemed to be the worst hit, as heavy rain has led to crop loss. Standing crops on an estimated 23,000 hectares of land have been affected in the district. The first week of September saw 92 mm of rainfall as against the annual average of 40 mm. The three mid-range reservoirs — Karanja, Chulki Nala, and Mullamari — are all full.
Vijayapura registered 34 mm of rainfall in a week. Belagavi district had around 31 mm and Bagalkot had around 25 mm of rainfall in the week ending Wednesday, officials said.
Meanwhile, rain in south-east Maharashtra, Belagavi, and Bagalkot districts has led to increased inflow in the Krishna.
The Lal Bahadur Shastri Reservoir across the Krishna at Almatti village is nearly full. The reservoir level as on Wednesday was 519.57 m as against the FRL of 519.6 m. The Narayanpura dam level was at 491.83 m as against the full reservoir level of 492.25 m.
Notwithstanding the recent rains, the overall rainfall pattern across the State remained uniform in both north and south interior Karnataka for the period of June 1 to September 8, according to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre.
In south interior Karnataka regions, the normal rainfall for the June–September 8 period is 258.1 mm against which it has received 349.5 mm. North interior Karnataka received 423.5 mm rainfall as against a normal of 365.3 mm for the above period.
Deficient rainfall
But the coastal belt and the Cauvery catchment region have received deficient rainfall so far. As against a normal of 2,900 mm, the coastal belt comprising Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, and Utttara Kannada districts have received 2,421.6 mm, which is 16% below normal. The districts of Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, and Kodagu, comprising the Cauvery catchment area, have received below normal rainfall this year.
As a result, the Krishnaraja Sagar in Mandya district has failed to attain the FRL of 124.8 feet this year. The reservoir level was hovering at 115.91 feet and the live storage was 38.11 tmcft as against the gross storage capacity of 49.45 tmcft.
