Roads flooded; Vehicles wade through water;  MCC’s Abhaya team rescues calf from open drain at J.C. Nagar

Mysore/Mysuru: A large number of houses and streets of Mysuru were inundated early this morning after the boundary wall (lake bund) of Mariyappana Kere (popular as Bogadi Lake) off the Ring Road breached at two places. The breach occurred at 4 am and it could have caused major damage if at all it had occurred when the traffic on the Ring Road was heavy after 8 am.

Motorists at Bogadi Signal Circle and towards the Ring Road were greeted with knee-deep water forcefully flowing onto the huge storm water drain near a hotel after the lake breach. So heavy was the water flow that many two-wheelers did not take the risk of entering the stretches. Later, the Kuvempunagar Police banned two-wheelers and allowed only four-wheelers and heavy vehicles.

Mariyappana Kere is a historic Lake near Bogadi and the breach exactly occurred at the Southern and Western part of the Lake. The Lake earlier had many Raja Kaluves and as such, water automatically flowed into the Lingambudhi Lake. Now with development, widespread constructions, layouts and multi-storeyed buildings have come up on the Raja Kaluves, blocking the natural flow of water.

Also, the wide Lake has been encroached upon by real estate sharks. As soon as the breach was reported, Kuvempunagar Police rushed to the spot and banned cyclists and two-wheelers from using the road. None of the irrigation department, public works department, taluk officers and Gram Panchayat officers or elected members had visited the spot even after 12 noon.

Even if they had come, nothing could have been done as the water was in full force. The bund could be restored only after the water receded and if at all it rains again, the Lake will further breach, said local residents.

Widespread rain woes

Widespread destruction has been reported from many areas of the city clearly exposing the inability of the MCC to handle such a situation. Tree-falls, water-logged roads, water and sewage entering homes and knee-deep dirt water inside houses were reported.

While three trees came crashing down at Chamundipuram, Krishnamurthypuram and at Vijayanagar 2nd Stage, Srirampura 3rd Stage residents bore the misery of water entering their houses. More than 100 houses in Ashwini Choultry area, Devaiahanahundi Main Road and surrounding areas were affected.

Similarly, water had entered into many houses at Kuvempunagar M-Block, Aishwarya Layout, Surya Layout, Kalyangiri, Bannimantap HUDCO Layout and other low-lying areas. Former MLA M.K. Somashekar visited many places at Srirampura and Kuvempunagar asking the MCC workers and engineers to take up the task of clearing the clogged drain immediately.

Calf rescued from drain

In a noble act, the Abhaya-1  team of the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) rescued a calf that had fallen into an open drain at J.C. Nagar this morning. The calf had strayed into the area that was covered in water, searching for grass.

It fell to the drain at J.C. Nagar Third Cross and passers-by who saw this alerted the MCC Control Room and the Abhaya team led by Manjunath managed to save the calf after a struggle of more than one-and-a-half hours. The animal was pulled out with the help of ropes and clothes after men got into the drain.

452 mm rainfall in October

According to reports from Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, till Oct. 26 (today) from Oct. 1, 2021, 452 mm rainfall has been recorded in Mysuru. In 1994 — 27 years ago — Mysuru district had received 482 mm rain in October.

Till 8 am today (24-hour data), it rained 33.4 mm in Mysuru taluk closely followed by K.R. Nagar with 30.8 mm. H.D. Kote received 2.4 mm, Saragur 9.6 mm, Hunsur 20 mm, Nanjangud 3.2 mm and Periyapatna recorded 12.4 mm. There has been no rain in T. Narasipur.