The water level in the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) across the Cauvery breached the 100-ft mark on Tuesday morning and attained 102.35 ft by night owing to heavy rain in the catchment area of the river for the last few days. Meanwhile, water level in the Kabini reservoir in H.D. Kote taluk of Mysuru district is nearing the full reservoir level.
The southwest monsoon, which was weak in Kodagu during June and a greater part of July, gained traction during the last few days consequent to which heavy to very heavy rain lashed the district, bridging the deficient significantly.
This also helped increase the volume of the inflow and enabled the KRS to cross the 100-ft mark, which seemed unlikely till a few days ago. The reservoir level was 91.24 ft on Saturday.
While the reservoir level has crossed the 100-ft mark as against the full reservoir level of 124.8 ft, the live storage in the dam increased from 16.69 tmcft on Saturday to 22.81 tmcft on Tuesday, an increase in the storage by 6.12 tmcft in less than three days. But it is pertinent to note that this is only 46% of the dam’s gross capacity of 49.45 tmcft.
Inflow and outflow
The inflow was at the rate of 48,025 cusecs on Tuesday morning and increased to 49,280 cusecs at night, according to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) and the outflow was at 5,449 cusecs. The current trend of increased inflow into the KRS may last so long as Kodagu receives copious rain coupled with an increase in the discharge from the Harangi where the outflow was hovering around the rate of 30,000 cusecs on Monday, dropped to 20,000 cusecs on Tuesday afternoon and further declined to 13,000 cusecs by evening.
The forecast
The ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra at Gonikoappal, which is the District Agro Meteorological Unit of Kodagu, has forecast rainfall from 41.6 mm in Somwarpet to 60.9 mm in Madikeri and 59.9 mm in Virajpet, on Wednesday. But from Thursday onwards, the forecast indicates that the rain will abate and the three taluks are expected to receive between 8.7 mm and 14.7 mm rainfall on Thursday and 1.5 mm and 3.1 mm on Friday with a further decline by Saturday. Consequently, the rate of inflow into the Harangi and the KRS in the downstream will also abate.
Kabini nearing FRL
The Kabini reservoir at Beechanahalli in H.D. Kote taluk of Mysuru district is inching closer to attaining the full reservoir level of 2,284 feet.
This is due to heavy inflow consequent to rain in the catchment area of the river in Wayanad, Kerala, in the upstream region. The rate of inflow was 25,485 cusecs and the water level was 2,281.27 ft on Tuesday. The authorities have announced that the outflow from the dam was stepped up from the rate of 15,000 cusecs to 20,000 cusecs and said the Bidarahalli bridge could be partially submerged.
Kabini is the first reservoir that tends to get filled up as early as late June or in the first week of July during monsoon but this year scanty rain resulted in poor inflow into the reservoir. The gross storage capacity of the reservoir is 19.52 tmcft against which the live storage on Tuesday was 17.79 tmc ft.
