The river Cauvery against Krishnaraja Sagar Reservoir had a water level of 110.60 feet on July 17, 2024 up to its maximum level of 124.80 feet. It increased to about 119.90 feet on the morning hours of July 20, 2024.
It has been raining heavily in Kodagu district in south Karnataka – the catchment area of the Cauvery River and its tributaries – raising inflow into the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) reservoir near Mandya.
On the morning of July 20, inflow was determined to be at 51,375 cusecs in this year’s monsoon, marking first time this flood season that KRS’ inflow went beyond as much as fifty thousand cubic seconds per second. This will continue increasing considering that Hemavathi reservoir’s crest gates were opened last night after their closure since July 19.
By eight o’clock in the morning of the twentieth day of July, K.R.S. was at one hundred and nineteen point nine feet above mean sea level compared to one hundred twenty four point eight feet which are measured from mean sea level at full capacity. On this premise however an alert has been issued in Mandya by authorities ahead of outflows from Hemavathi meant for K.R.S within a span of between today or tomorrow.
Due to heavy rainfall period during a week, there was an increase in water level at KRS reservoir by fifteen ft., and for three weeks it rose upto twenty five feet rapidly.. KSNDMC records show that on July 1st it was at ninety five point five zero foot with inflows amounting to nine thousand three hundred sixty nine cusecs while on seventh; only six thousand one hundred eighty five cusecs were recorded.
In addition, poor monsoon conditions have led to a decline in inflows over time and at present it has reduced to 3406 cusecs as of July 13. This meant that there would be weak monsoon in the offing. However, since July 14, the monsoon has not only revived, but gained vigour and neutralised the rainfall deficit in the Cauvery catchment area.
The crest gates of KRS will affect about ninety two Mandya villages. In view of this development, boat services at Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary near Srirangapatna have been suspended until further notice.
From morning hours on July nineteenth, Kabini outflow was more than seventy thousand cubic seconds per second and dropped to forty thousand four hundred eight cusecs by the same time a day later. According to reports from Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), there had been a total outflow of seventeen point four two tmc ft in one week whereas twenty two point three three tmc ft had moved out since June first.
