Cauvery in spate, inundates low-lying areas in Tamil Nadu; flood alert sounded in 11 districts

Chennai: Several low-lying areas were inundated along the banks of Cauvery river and its tributary Bhavani in various parts of Tamil Nadu on Thursday in view of discharge of 1.60 lakh cusecs of water from the Mettur dam following heavy inflows from Karnataka. Chief Minister K Palaniswami chaired a high-level meeting in Chennai to review the situation as a flood alert was sounded in 11 districts. Water from Cauvery and Bhavani rivers entered some villages in Dharmapuri, Salem and Erode districts and people had been shifted to safer places, reports received here said. Meanwhile, rains lashed parts of the state and two people died in rain-related incidents in Valparai in Coimbatore district, officials said. The water level in the Mettur dam today stood at 120.29 feet as against its maximum of 120 feet and the storage 93.9 tmc against the capacity of 93.4 tmc, prompting authorities to discharge marginally higher than the inflow. [caption id=“attachment_4804061” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Mettur dam. PTI[/caption] At 8 pm, the inflow into the reservoir was 1,65,000 cusecs and the discharge 1,65,800 cusecs. The dam has already surplussed twice this month in the wake of the copious inflows triggered by heavy rains in Karnataka. The flood alert has been sounded in 11 districts as the discharge from Mettur, Bhavanisagar and Amaravati dams were further expected to go up with Karnataka releasing 2.1 lakh cusecs from Kabini and KRS dams into Cauvery. The Central Water Commission’s Southern Rivers Division, in an advisory, said a combined release of about 2.5 lakh cusecs was expected to be made from Mettur and Bhavanisagar dams and asked the state government to take precautionary steps. Also, the downstream areas of Thirumukkudal in Karur district was expected to see a combined release of about 2.6-to 2.8 lakh cusecs, it said. State Revenue Minister RB Udayakumar said people living in low-lying areas of the districts, including Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Tiruchirappalli and Thanjavur in the Cavuery Delta region, have been advised to move to the relief centres. As many as 492 personnel of State Disaster Response Force have been deployed in districts along the banks of Cauvery, he told reporters in Chennai. A total of 3,956 people have been accommodated in 46 relief centres in six districts including Namakkal, Erode and Karur, an official said. A report from Kanyakumari said about 100 villages were hit by inundation following breaches in tanks and ponds besides release of water from Pechiparai and Perunchani dams. The swelling Cauvery caused inundation of low-lying areas in several districts, including Dharmapuri and Erode, with people being shifted to relief centres. In Coimbatore district’s hilly Valparai area, normalcy was affected as rain waters entered nearly 500 houses. A holiday was declared for schools in Valparai and Pollachi taluk in the district and Kanyakumari district on Thursday. A 17-member NDRF team is on stand-by at Mettur to meet any eventuality, officials said.