Flood fury continues to wreak havoc in North K'taka

Bangalore, Aug 14 (UNI) The water level in swollen river Bhima in Gulbarga district started receding today following slightly reduced outflow from Ujjini and Veerbhatkal dams in rain-ravaged Maharashtra, while the flood situation continued to remain grim in other parts of North Karnataka with rivers Krishna and Tungabhadra still in spate.

The death toll in flood-related incidents touched eight, with one person reported death from Gulbarga today. The man was crushed to death when his house collapsed in flood waters at Allagi-B village in Afzalpur taluk in Gulbarga district.

Thousands of people were being shifted to relief centres from marooned villages in Bijapur, Gulbarga, Belgaum, Bagalkot and Bellary.

A report from Bijapur said river Bhima, which was flowing above the danger mark of 14m for the last two days, mellowed down and the water level receded to 11m at Dulikhed, the entry point from Maharashtra.

The combined inflow from the two reservoirs was 2.74 lakh cusecs, a drop of 40,000 cusecs since yesterday. The inflow was likely to come down further tonight. Nearly 2,400 families had to leave their homes and 11,360 people still remained in the 31 relief centres.

Standing crop in 12,265 lakh hectares of land had been destroyed, officials said.

In downstream Gulbarga district, nearly 7,000 people were shifted from marooned villages. ''We expect the flood waters in river Bhima to recede further in the next four to six days, unless there is heavy discharge from Maharashtra,'' official sources told UNI.

Several villages had been plunged into darkness for more than a week due cut in power supply. Drinking water supply had also been hit as the main pumping station that supplied water to the six-lakh population in Gulbarga, had submerged in the deluge.

River Bhima was receving 2.90 lakh cusecs and the level stood at 407.20 ft.

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