While the nation is leaving no stones unturned to put the flood-hit Kerala back on the map, Karnataka's Kodagu district is in state of crisis as well with floods killing 12 people. What's more alarming is that the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) has said the city of Bengaluru may face the same fate in September, even though a deficit monsoon has been predicted.
Reports suggest that pressure over the Bay of Bengal could bring storms to the city and the Centre had informed the administration of the issue. With the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) just beginning work on removing encroachments across the city, the possibility of a repeat of last year's flooding could not be ruled out. The scanty rainfall this year has made the authorities complacent and this could very well spell doom for the IT hub.
Large parts of Bengaluru had experienced flash floods last year. At present, heavy rains have been predicted for the next 3-4 days. The New Indian Express quoted KSNDMC director Srinivas Reddy as saying, "This year, in the monsoon period (June to August), Bengaluru Urban district has a 30 percent deficit in rainfall. This is similar to the situation last year. While rains in the next two months might not be as heavy as last year, it doesn't mean that the city is safe."
Meanwhile, mismanagement of water from the Cauvery dam is being reported as the reason behind the floods in Kodagu. Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers And People, told The Times of India on Monday, Aug 20, "Cauvery reservoirs started getting saturated as early as May end and mid-June, a rare phenomenon. Ideally, the authorities should have started releasing water from dam in June itself, but they didn't do it as they wanted to conserve water for difficult days. But unexpected excess rain in the later part of July and August threw their plans out of gear. With water being released in huge quantities at once, there were floods downstream."
Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy conducted an aerial survey of Kodagu on Tuesday, Aug 21.
