Rain woes continue for 4th day in Nilgiris, Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: After three days of heavy downpours, the intensity of rains subsided in the Nilgiris on Tuesday. However, tree falls and mud slips continued, disrupting vehicle movement and causing power outages.

An alert has been issued to people living along the banks of rivers, as the Kundah, Upper Bhavani, Avalanche, Pykkara, and Emerald dams were filling up fast due to copious inflow. The Kundah dam has reached its maximum capacity of 89 feet, and surplus water has been discharged from the reservoir.

Vehicle movement on the Kalhatti ghat road, which was damaged after boulders rolled over it on Monday, was restored on Tuesday after repair works. Most of the tourist spots continued to remain closed on Tuesday too. The Government Botanical Garden (GBG), which was reopened around noon, was closed again within a few hours.

In the last 24 hours ending Tuesday at 8.30 am, Avalanche received a maximum of 25.3 cm of rain, followed by 13.2 cm in Emerald and 10.9 cm in Kundah.

Villagers in Manvayal in Gudalur were unable to get essentials from the fair price shop in their neighbourhood as the biometric authentication system did not function due to continuous power outages caused by tree falls and rain. After long hours of waiting, the villagers left disappointed. They demanded that the authorities provide essentials by issuing receipts or carry forward their quota of supply to the next month.

Meanwhile, the Nilgiris Member of Parliament A Raja inspected rain damage in the hills and said to the media that work is under way to restore power supply in remote villages.

“So far, 17 houses were damaged and over 250 people were sheltered in relief camps. All arrangements have been made in the relief camps. Crop damages will be assessed by the district administration to provide compensation. The extent of damage remains less than the 2009 rains,” he said.

Similarly, in Coimbatore rains eased and the sky remained cloudy for most of the day. Therefore, inflow into the Pillur dam near Mettupalayam began to reduce gradually from 10,500 cusecs on Tuesday at 7 am to 7,530 cusecs at 11 am, while the dam had a storage of 96 feet as against its full reservoir level of 100 feet.

Also, the water level in Siruvani Dam went up by four feet within a day to reach 30.5 feet on Tuesday from 26.6 feet on Monday, as against the dam’s full reservoir level of 49 feet. Most of the tanks in Coimbatore received copious inflow, which helped in improving their storage position.

Rains in the Valparai region led to the falling of a tree on the Valparai-Pollachi ghat road, and boulders rolled down on the Valparai-Sholayar Road. The damp walls of a mud house in Adi-Dravidar Colony near Negamam in Pollachi and another house in Anna Nagar tribal village in Sethumadai were damaged in the rains.