Hyderabad, October 06: Rescue workers used sandbags to stop a raging river from breaching its embankment near a southern Indian city on Monday as floods triggered by heavy rains over the last week left 2.5 million people homeless in south India.
The flooding, described by officials as the worst in many decades in south India, has killed 250 people, mostly in the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. At least 25 people were also killed in flood-related incidents in western Maharashtra state.
At least five million people are crammed in temporary government shelters.
Flood waters swamped millions of acres of cropland, including sugarcane plantations, prompting worries of a fall in sugar output in Karnataka, the country’s third-biggest producer.
Of the 15 districts affected in Karnataka, heavy loss of life and destruction to property was in the northern districts of Bijapur, Bagalkot, Raichur and Bellary.
Traders also estimated the flooding would hit corn output by at least one million tonnes in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which account for about 35 per cent of India’s total corn production.
Officials said 300,000 heavy sandbags were being used to fortify weakening embankments of the Krishna river that flows close to Vijayawada, a city of about a million people in Andhra Pradesh and an important trading centre. The river on Monday inundated parts of Vijayawada city and threatened to swamp 200 villages in Krishna and Guntur districts.
“There is three to four feet water in some areas along the river in Vijayawada city and this may go up to six to seven feet later in the day. We have already moved out of the area near the river,” Suresh Kumar, a resident, said.
Krishna District Collector Piyush Kumar said army, navy and the National Disaster Response Force were ready to rescue people with 100 boats and six helicopters in the district.
Vehicular traffic on Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway came to a standstill as the highway was under water at several points.
However, receding water levels at Srisailam dam and in the tributaries of Krishna have provided some respite to Kurnool and Mahbubnagar, where 1.1 million people have been affected.
Kurnool had been submerged two days ago and is still under four to five feet of water. In Mahbubnagar too, many people are still trapped in flood waters.
Rescue workers also moved more than 200,000 people living close to the Krishna river.
“These are the worst floods in 100 years,” said Dharmana Prasada Rao, Andhra Pradesh’s minister for revenue and relief.
Rao said the state government had done well to keep the loss of lives to the minimum.
“In neighbouring Karnataka over 200 people were killed in heavy rains and floods while despite facing worst-ever floods the death toll in our state is under 50,” he said.
Karnataka has offered Rs100,000 as relief to the family of the dead.
Andhra Pradesh has doubled the amount to Rs200,000.
Relief officials used helicopters and boats to drop off rations and plastic sheets to hundreds of marooned villagers in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Officials and relief agencies said flood victims were now sheltered in over 1,200 temporary camps. They included about 2.5 million people from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh who have lost their homes.
H.V. Parashwanath, a Karnataka disaster management official overseeing relief operations, said that some two million people had been made homeless in the state.
Sonia Gandhi, the head of India’s ruling Congress party, and federal Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram inspected the devastation.
Officials said vast areas of agricultural land, including sugarcane and paddy fields, were under water in the state.
“About two-thirds of the 54 sugar mills in the state have been forced to delay crushing by a week to 10 days as cane fields are submerged,” Govind Reddy, a secretary of the Southern Indian Sugar Mills Association, told Reuters over the phone from Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka.
In western Maharashtra state, at least 25 people were killed, including 10 in flash floods in the Konkan region, while rail and road communication was disrupted in neighbouring Goa.
Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh on Monday sought immediate central assistance of Rs160 billion for rehabilitation work. Of the massive assistance sought by the two neighbouring states, Karnataka wants Rs100 billion and Andhra Rs60 billion immediately in the states’ worst floods.
The Andhra Pradesh government urged the centre to declare the floods a national calamity. This will enable the state to avail assistance under the National Calamity Contingency Fund.
–Agencies