Heavy rain continues to lash Karnataka district
Bengaluru, Aug 18 : Heavy rain leading to landslides and flooding continued to lash Karnataka's Kodagu district, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said on Saturday.
"Rains have been causing massive damage in Kodagu. The state officials, along with Indian Army troops, Navy divers are carrying out rescue and relief operations on war-footing," Kumaraswamy told reporters here.
Kodagu is one of the districts in the southern state worst hit by the south-west monsoon rains since June first week. The landslides and heavy rain have claimed six lives in the district since Thursday, the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said.
According to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), the district received a maximum rainfall of up to 25.3 cm and an average rainfall of 11.9 cm over the past 24 hours.
Located in the Western Ghats mountain ranges, the incessant rain has been causing landslips across the region, making rescue operations difficult.
According to local media, hundreds of people remain stranded on various hills of the district.
Telecom services, disrupted due to the rain and strong winds uprooting poles and snapping phone lines, are being restored on priority, Kumaraswamy said.
"About 60 Dogra Regiment soldiers and 12 expert naval divers rescued 873 marooned people in the flood-hit district, where overnight heavy rain caused landslides and inundated low-lying areas at Makkanduru," a statement from the CMO said on Friday night.
The Army's engineering task force deployed 73 boats, equipment and rafts in rescuing the people and escorting them to safer places in the district.
About 60 members of the national and state disaster relief forces and 45 members of the civil defence joined the rescue and relief operations with boats and equipment in Madikeri in the hilly district.
The Indian Air Force, which could not airlift stranded people through chopper in the district due to inclement weather till Friday, is working to rescue people and transport relief materials, the CMO said.
Kumaraswamy has also requested Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to deploy additional military forces in Kodagu for rescue operations.
So far, the district administration has housed 573 people in 17 relief camps.
Schools and colleges have remained closed in the affected areas of Kodagu, Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Chikkamagaluru and Hassan districts due to the rains.
The South Western Railway (SWR) has cancelled its train services from Bengaluru towards Kannur and Ernakulam in flood-hit Kerala due to landslips and flooding.
State-run Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has also suspended several of its inter-state and intra-state bus services towards Kerala, owing to the flooded roads.
The Bengaluru division of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts that heavy rain will continue over the next two days in the coastal and south interior districts of the state, including Kodagu.
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2 leopards captured in village near Bengaluru after fatal attack on woman
Bengaluru, Nov 26: A week after a 52-year-old woman was mauled to death by a leopard near Shivagange Hills in Nelamangala taluk, the Forest department has captured two leopards from Kambalu Gollarahatti village, officials said on Tuesday.
A seven-year-old male leopard was captured on Monday, followed by a nine-year-old female leopard on Tuesday from the same area, they said.
Blood and hair samples of the leopards have been collected and will be sent to the National Centre for Biological Sciences. DNA analysis will determine if either of the captured leopards was responsible for the fatal attack, a senior forest official said.
The victim, identified as Kariamma, was killed on November 17 while cutting grass in an agricultural field near her home. She was reportedly dragged into the forest by a leopard, which mauled her to death and consumed parts of her body.
In response, the Forest Department deployed large cages and installed eight pairs of camera traps around the area to track the leopards.
"Camera traps captured footprints of two male leopards and one female leopard. This enabled us to locate and capture the male and female leopards. Our teams are actively searching for the third male leopard whose footprints were recorded," the official added.
Efforts are ongoing to ensure the safety of residents and monitor wildlife in the region.
