Mysuru: Forecasting heavy rainfall over the next few days, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has sounded orange and yellow alert for parts of south interior Karnataka, including Kodagu and Mysuru and north interior Karnataka till October 25 and a red alert for coastal Karnataka for three days, starting October 24.
While all reservoirs in the Cauvery basin and sub-basins of the Krishna are entirely or nearly full, the heavy rainfall is expected to increase their inflows and outflows, in turn leading to a rise in the water levels of the rivers in downstream areas of Kodagu, Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajnagar, Koppal, Ballari, Bagalkote, Belagavi, Raichur, Chikkamagalur and Shimoga districts.
Alarmed, the Central Water Commission has released a special advisory bulletin for the districts concerned.
The IMD’s orange alert predicts heavy rainfall of between 115.6mm to 204.4 mm in parts of south interior Karnataka like Kodagu, Mysuru, Chamarajangar, Chikkamagaluru, Chithradurga, Hassan and Shivamogga from October 22 to 25.
A similar forecast has been made for Belagavi, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri and Koppal from October 22 to 24 and for Dakshina Kannada and Udupi on October 22 and 23. Coastal Karnataka has been warned it could receive very heavy rainfall of over 204.4mm for three days from October 24.
The IMD has issued a yellow alert, predicting rainfall of between 64.5mm to 115.5mm for the rest of the state from October 22 to 26.
Going by the Karnataka Disaster Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, the heavy rain is the result of a low pressure area over the east central Arabian sea and associated cyclonic circulation.
It is very likely to become a well marked low pressure area during the next 24 hours and concentrate into a depression during the subsequent 24 hours.
