In the wake of heavy rains lashing the catchment areas of Cauvery in Kodagu and KRS reservoir receiving a good inflow during the last few days, Minister in charge of Mandya district K.C .Narayana Gowda has asked the Irrigation Department officials to begin releasing water to irrigation canals and facilitate farmers of the district to take up agricultural activity.
While the irrigation authorities are already releasing water to Hemavathi canal, Mr. Gowda said the process of discharging water to Visvesvaraya Canal will also begin from Monday.
The water level in KRS reservoir had crossed 106 ft. on Saturday against the Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of 124.8 ft. The inflow had reached 35,000 cusecs on Saturday and the water level had increased by 2 ft. in the last 24 hours, said a statement from Mandya district administration.
The discharge from KRS was presently 6,000 cusecs and the released water was flowing into Hemavathi canal.
Even though Mandya district was known as the “sugar bowl” of Karnataka, the farmers grew more paddy than sugarcane. If sugarcane was grown on 40,000 hectares, paddy was cultivated on 60,000 hectares, the statement said.
Mr. Gowda said the farmers of the region were looking forward to release of water into the irrigation canals to grow their crops. The Agricultural Department will make available paddy seeds at a subsidised rate from Wednesday, he said while adding that ragi was also grown in the district on 4,000 hectares of irrigated land.
Pointing out that agricultural was the predominant occupation of people of Mandya, Mr. Gowda said the farmers of the region were completely dependent on water for growing their crops. For the last three successive years, KRS reservoir was reaching its full reservoir level, he said while appealing to the farmers against wasting water that is released through the irrigation canals.
Kabini
Meanwhile, irrigation authorities are discharging 30,000 cusecs of water from Kabini reservoir in Mysuru district in view of the good inflow into the reservoir following widespread rain in Wayanad region of Kerala.
The water level in Kabini reached 2,280.28 ft. on Saturday against the full reservoir level of 2,284 ft. The inflow into the reservoir was 27,511 cusecs.
