Most of the monuments at the World Heritage Site of Hampi are flooded as more than 2.5 lakh cusecs of water is being released from Tungabhadra reservoir at Munirabad in Koppal district.
The increase in water release from the reservoir has resulted in many places along banks of the Tungabhadra in Koppal and Ballari districts getting flooded.
At Hampi, Purandara Mantapa and Chola Mantapa are submerged, while the Rama Lakshmana Temple, Eduru Basavanna Temple and Salu Mantapa are heavily flooded. Water is expected to reach Virupaksha Temple premises soon if the outflow from the reservoir is increased further.
Other historical places such as Kampli Fort and Anjaneyaswamy Temple are also flooded. There is no connectivity to Virupapur Gaddi (island) and around 200 tourists, including some students from Bengaluru, are stranded there.
The buildings housing a police station and the office of the Circle Inspector of Police have also been flooded. Records and other important materials at the structures have been shifted to the Jain Mantap and power supply to the buildings cut.
According to information provided by the Department of Water Resources, all the 33 gates of the reservoir were lifted — 28 gates by four feet and five gates by one foot — on Sunday morning to release around 2 lakh cusecs of water as the reservoir was seeing a heavy inflow thanks to the downpour in the Tungabhadra catchment area in the Western Ghats. As the inflow increased and the water level got closer to the brim by afternoon, the release was increased to around 2.5 lakh cusecs. The authorities have put the areas along the river bank downstream on high alert and appealed to residents and tourists to move to safer places. Ballari Deputy Commissioner S.S. Nakul and Superintendent of Police C.K. Baba are supervising the rescue and relief operations in flood-hit areas.
