Flood toll in Karnataka rises to 40, 14 still missing

Bengaluru: Nine more people have died in rain related incidents in Karnataka, taking the toll to 40 as the flood situation remained grim in the state.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah conducted an aerial survey of flood affected areas in Belagavi district and Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa joined him in the exercise.

An official release said the toll has risen to 40 Sunday with nine more deaths being reported, while 14 people are missing.

As many as 5.82 lakh people have been evacuated to safety of which 3.27 lakh have been housed in 1,168 relief camps.

A total of 50,595 heads of livestock had been rescued, it said.

After returning from the aerial survey, Yediyurappa told reporters in Belagavi that the preliminary estimate of flood loss has been pegged at Rs 10,000 crore, but that he personally believed it would be somewhere between Rs 30000 crore to Rs 40,000 crore.

He said the state has urged the Central government to release Rs 3,000 crore immediately as relief.

The Chief secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar informed the chief minister that the flood fury would ease in the next two to three days.

The state government on Saturday declared 80 taluks in 17 districts flood affected and said relief and rescue operations will be carried out in a more focused manner in these places.

Most of the Taluks are in Belagavi district which bore which bore the brunt of the nature’s fury.

The government has assessed that 21,431 houses and crops in 4.16 lakh hectares had been damaged in the floods following heavy rains.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday conducted an aerial survey of the worst-affected Belagavi and Bagalkote districts.

In the wake of series of landslides, the national highway connecting Bengaluru and Mangaluru will remain closed at least till Monday, official sources said.

They also said there was slight reduction in the water level in the Netravati river in Dakshina Kannada district.

The water level near Bantwal has reduced from 11 metres above the danger level to 9.1 metres above the danger level.

In Belagavi, the Almatti dam across Krishna river had in inflow of 6.16 lakh cusecs while the outflow was 5.4 lakh cusecs.

In Narayanapura dam too, the inflow was 6 lakh cusecs and outflow was 6.11 cusecs, officials said.

The world heritage site at Hampi in Ballari district too witnessed the inundation as huge amount of water was released from Tungabhadra dam.

Officials said more quantity of water would be released.

People living in 10 villages, which are prone to floods, have been shifted to safety.