Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, along with his senior ministers met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and presented a note seeking ₹1,199 crore as flood relief.

“I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Government of India for having responded very swiftly by dispatching armed forces and NDRF teams to Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts. The NDRF teams, along with other teams, have done an exceptional job and have rescued and assisted several thousands of people from very inaccessible areas,” Kumaraswamy said in his letter.

Floods and drought

Karnataka is facing flood, landslides and drought conditions. Kumaraswamy said Karnataka has been frequently confronted with various disasters such as drought, flood, hailstorm, etc, causing enormous loss and damage to life, property, crops and infrastructure.

The State also witnessed “too much” and “too little” rainfall during the southwest monsoon season, which led to devastating floods and landslides in seven districts of the Coastal and Malenadu region and drought in 15 districts of Interior Karnataka, the note said.

“The district of Kodagu and adjoining Malenadu and Coastal districts witnessed intense wet spells during from May to August 2018. The rainfall recorded during August second week was highest in the last 118 years. Resultant inflows to the reservoirs in the region were also highest since their commissioning,” Kumaraswamy said.

The high intensity and heavy rainfall during successive months lead to severe landslides/mudflows and floods in Kodagu and adjoining districts during August 2018.

Coffee losses

“Due to floods and landslides the entire fertile topsoil has been washed away, which is likely to adversely affect the ecology and Geomorphology,” the Chief Minister said. “Large extent of agriculture and horticulture crop has been damaged and the coffee estates have been reduced to a pile of mud due to massive landslides.”

The industry is stating that coffee production in 2018/19 is likely to fall by at least one-fifth as Kerala and Karnataka (especially Kodagu) account for 90 per cent of country’s coffee production. The losses of coffee crop will be more than ₹1,000 crore.

The wide trail of destruction due to the extreme event has not only left thousands of people homeless but has also led to loss of livelihood. The worst-affected are plantation workers and small and marginal landholders.

The death toll in floods, landslides, house collapse and lightning and thunderstorm in Malenadu and Coastal districts was 65 since the beginning of the southwest monsoon season.

Road damage

National Highways, viz, NH-275, NH-75 and NH-234 and State highways and major district roads in Kodagu and village roads and forest roads have been severely damaged. Landslide occurred at multiple locations on Ghat (Hilly area) section and the quantum of debris is humongous will require coordinated efforts from multiple agencies to restore the roads.

State response

A very well co-ordinated rescue operation was conducted where in 1,200 personnel from multiple agencies teams from NDRF, SDRF, Civil Defense, Fire and Emergency Services was launched and 4,300 stranded persons were rescued.

55 relief centres were opened housing around 7,300 people. All necessary relief materials, food, medical care were provided in the relief camps. Enhanced ex-gratia of ₹5 lakh (₹1 lakh additional from Chief Minister’s Relief Fund) has been paid to the kin of the victims.

Drought condition

As on September 6, though the State as a whole has recorded normal rainfall (+2 per cent), only Malenadu and coastal districts have received excess rainfall and districts in North Interior Karnataka and a few districts in South Interior Karnataka are with deficit rainfall.

District wise rainfall pattern indicates that out of 30 districts four districts are under excess, 10 under normal, remaining 16 districts are under deficit rainfall category.

Out of 176 taluks, 23 taluks are under excess, 64 under normal and remaining 89 taluks are under deficit rainfall category. As many as 104 taluks have experienced consecutive weeks of dry spell (up to 2nd September).

Rainfall deficiency and three weeks consecutive dry spell for (Trigger 1) shows the taluks are qualifying for further drought assessment through impact indicators. The impact indicators like Area Sown, Remote Sensing parameters, Moisture Adequacy Index and Hydrological Indices are being assessed.

The preliminary assessment of the area affected and the crop damage shows that more than 15 lakh hectares of agriculture and horticulture crops has been affected due to moisture stress. The estimated loss for these two crops is more than ₹8,000 crore as of now.

Apart from the agriculture and horticulture sectors, the drought has impact on drinking water, fodder, rural employment and socio-economic sectors.

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