Jal effect swells Sulekere, Asia’s second largest tank

Residents of Rudrapura, the village in Davangere district located on the banks of Asia’s second largest tank Sulekere are a worried lot. About 25 houses on the tank-bed here have been submerged due to heavy rains in the past few days caused by the effect of Cyclone Jal. 

When DNA visited the village on Tuesday, 26-year-old Chintamani was busy pumping mud waters out of her house while her eight-year-old daughter, Mamatha was put to sleep on a cradle made of cloth.

“Many villagers have been shifted to a rehabilitation camp in the government school nearby. However, I can’t leave the property at home,” said Chintamani pointing at the increasing tank water level beside her house. The house of Nagendrappa and Bhagyamma has been submerged for six days but there is no sign of the water level receding. “My father was saying that it was about five decades ago that the tank received inflow like this resulting in such a rise in water level. However, there were no houses beside the tank-bed then. Now, villagers are in a shock,” Nagendrappa said.

Like Chintamani, another villager, Shivanna, too does not want to shift to the rehabilitation camp.

“They are providing food and cloths at the rehabilitation camp. However, we need the government to speed up the reconstruction of houses as we can’t leave properties out in the field. We have lost crops this year also,” said Shivamma.

Chandramma, president, Rudrapur Gram Panchayat told DNA that in other two villages  Hosahalli and Hosanagara there have been cases of house wall collapsing and other damages.

“The local MLA has visited the damaged sites and we are working on the compensation package,” she said.

Some villagers complain that desilting at the tank was not done regularly resulting in flooding. “There is about 10 feet of silt in the tank. In fact, during 2009 rains the tank bund was broken causing a lot of damage to the region,” said a villager.

In Davangere district, about 150 houses have collapsed due to rains in the past few days. Paddy, maize and cotton crops have been submerged in many villages in the four taluks of Honnali, Chennagiri, Harihar and Davangere.

Farmers are worst affected as the rains have spoiled their chance of harvesting the crops.
Officials in the deputy commissioner’s office said that in Chennagiri taluk alone about 230 hectares of land have been submerged.

Deputy commissioner PS Vastrad said that there have been reports of deaths to sheep and cattle in Harihar taluk due to the rains.

The administration has estimated the loss due to house collapses at about Rs6 lakh and crop loss at Rs30 lakh. “We have lost about Rs3 crore due to damage to property and infrastructure such as roads and bridges,” said an official.