Heavy rains hit life in parts of Karnataka

Bengaluru: Heavy rains under the active South-West Monsoon continued to batter parts of Karnataka, affecting life and causing several rivers to be in spate, officials said here on Thursday.

Life was badly affected in the southern districts of Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, Hassan, Kodagu and Bagalkot, which are being lashed by rains for the past several days.

Rivers, including Cauvery, Tunga, Bhadravati and Krishna, and their tributary streams were in spate, they said.

Authorities in the rain-affected districts have ordered closure of schools depending on the local situation and asked people living near the swollen rivers to move to safer places.

The Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) has issued a warning to people not to go near the rivers with high current.

There is rainfall for so many days due to which inflow of water in all the reservoirs has increased. However, these rivers still have carrying capacity, KSNDMC Director Dr G S Srinivasa told PTI.

In a fresh rain-related incident, a youth was swept away with his two-wheeler in a stream on Wednesday in Koppa Taluk of Chikkamagaluru district.

The personnel of the National Disaster Response Force and the fire brigade were searching for him, police said.

Copious rains had been reported in Kodagu district where Cauvery originates. Lakshman Tirtha river, a tributary of Cauvery, was also in torrents.

Due to the heavy downpour in Chikkamagaluru and Hassan districts, Hemavathi river is swollen and the water level in the dam built across it in Hassan was just 7 ft short of its maximum level.