Mysore: The water level in Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) Dam, built across the Cauvery near Srirangapatna and the lifeline of people of Mysuru, Mandya, Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu, is struggling to reach 100 feet and today’s level stood at 90.30 feet. It has a long way to go to reach the 100 feet mark and subsequently the maximum level of 124.80 feet. 

Last year, on July 12, the water level stood at 119.1 feet. The inflow was at the rate of 41,583 cusecs and the outflow was recorded at 3,771 cusecs. The crest gates of the Dam were opened last year on July 15 to release water to Tamil Nadu following the rapid increase in the level in the reservoir.

This year, however, the water level at the Dam has seen a gradual but slow increase since June 25 when the level was at 79.76 ft. South West Monsoon, that began only in the month of July this year pushed up the level a bit but drop in the rains in Cauvery catchment areas of Kodagu and on the upstream of the reservoir in Mandya and Mysuru districts has resulted in small inflow to the KRS Dam. In Kodagu this year there is a rainfall shortage of 54 percent when compared to the previous years.

Even the Harangi Dam at Kushalnagar in Kodagu that achieves its full capacity by now has not touched the maximum level. Villagers surrounding Harangi say that usually this time of the year, the Irrigation Department issues warning cautioning people in low-lying areas along the Harangi Dam downstream to move to safer places. But this year, such situation has not arisen so far as the rains are less and the Dam is yet to reach the maximum level of 2,859 feet. Yesterday’s level stood at 2818.35 feet with an inflow of 616 cusecs. There is an outflow of 30 cusecs.

On June 25, the inflow to the KRS Dam was 253 cusecs while today’s inflow is 3,608 cusecs. Yesterday’s inflow was 4,902 cusecs with the level standing at 89.85 feet.

On July 11, the level was recorded at 87.10 feet with an inflow of 6,698 cusecs. On July 4, the level was at 80.20 feet with an inflow of 662 cusecs. On July 1, the water level at KRS stood at 80.05 feet with an inflow of 771 cusecs.