Hosapete: Heavy rainfall over the past few days across Karnataka, coupled with heavy inflows from Maharashtra into the Krishna basin, has led to a sharp rise in water levels at the state’s major reservoirs, improving overall storage and easing concerns over the monsoon deficit.
According to Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) data, the combined storage in the state’s 14 major reservoirs increased from 450.92 tmc ft on July 27 to 527.09 tmc ft on August 3, registering a gain of 76.17 tmc ft in one week. The storage level rose from 50 per cent to 59 percent of the total gross capacity of 895.65 tmc ft.
The most significant improvement was seen in the Krishna basin reservoirs of north Karnataka, where persistent rainfall in Maharashtra and the upper Krishna catchment resulted in massive inflows into Almatti, Narayanapura, Ghataprabha and Tungabhadra reservoirs. While Almatti and Narayanapura recorded marginal changes in storage because of heavy releases downstream, both reservoirs continued to receive inflows exceeding one lakh cusecs on Monday, indicating sustained runoff from the upstream catchments.
In a week, the Tungabhadra storage increased from 32.60 tmc ft to 44.19 tmc ft, Ghataprabha from 29.85 tmc ft to 38.42 tmc ft, and Malaprabha from 14.93 tmc ft to 17.08 tmc ft.
Almatti reservoir continued to remain close to its full capacity, with the water level touching 518.91 metres against the Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of 519.60 metres. The reservoir was holding 111.97 tmc ft of water as on August 3.
Narayanapura recorded 29.49 tmc ft.
Meanwhile Linganamakki registered one of the biggest increases in storage, rising from 43.01 tmc ft to 62.88 tmc ft, while Supa increased from 50.03 tmc ft to 62.94 tmc ft. Varahi also recorded a healthy rise from 9.76 tmc ft to 12.96 tmc ft as heavy rainfall continued across the Western Ghats.
In the Cauvery basin, Kabini storage increased from 14.15 tmc ft to 18.61 tmc ft, Hemavathi from 23.25 tmc ft to 28.02 tmc ft, Krishnarajasagar (KRS) from 16.98 tmc ft to 23.08 tmc ft, and Bhadra from 36.95 tmc ft to 46.25 tmc ft, reflecting sustained rainfall over the Malnad region.
The sharp rise in reservoir storage over the past week has brought fresh hope to farmers, particularly in North Karnataka, where concerns over irrigation water had grown following the sluggish progress of the southwest monsoon.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
