india

Updated: Aug 12, 2019 23:19 IST

The administration in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh has sounded a high alert in the villages along Krishna river due to heavy inflows from upstream in Karnataka and Maharashtra, after a long gap of 10 years.

The irrigation department authorities of both the Telugu states on Monday lifted all the 10 gates of the Srisailam dam and 26 gates of the Nagarjunasagar dam, whose reservoirs are almost filled to the brim.

A tourist was washed away in the gushing waters released from Nagarjunasagar dam in the afternoon, while he was attempting to take pictures of the dam when the gates were opened. The deceased was later identified as 41-year-old Narasimham from Zaheerabad of Telangana state, the Nagarjunasagar police said.

Narasimham took several photos along with his friends before getting down into the water which is alarmingly fierce and swirling. Efforts to save him from the waters proved futile.

The revenue department officials have started evacuating people from the villages abutting the Pulichintala project in the downstream of the river in Suryapet district, as there is a submergence threat to these villages due to heavy discharge of water from the Nagarjunasagar dam. The water is expected to reach Pulichintala by the early hours of Tuesday.

Even though the Pulichintala project capacity is more than 40 tmc, submergence starts even when the reservoir reaches 10 tmc capacities, an official of the irrigation department said.

Due to heavy rains in Maharasthra and Karnataka, the Krishna river is swelling alarmingly, inundating several low-lying areas in Telangana, forcing the villagers to move to safer places in Gadwal and Narayanpet districts.

According to official figures, the Srisailam reservoir was receiving inflows up to 7.53 lakh cusecs by Monday afternoon and the water level went up to 879 ft as against the full reservoir level of 885 ft. The authorities are discharging 8.51 lakh cusecs from the reservoir. “The discharge of water could go up to 10 lakh cusecs by Tuesday, which will be a record in the last 10 years,” the official said.

Similarly, at Nagarjunasagar, the inflow was 8.20 lakh cusecs and the water level in the reservoir stood at 560 ft as against FRL of 590 ft.

To witness the heavy inflows, hundreds of visitors from Hyderabad and many parts of the state arrived at the project site creating traffic snarls at the 43 km long ghat road leading to Srisailam. A record number of 1.5 lakh devotees had darshan at the Srisailam temple during the weekend.