Andhra Pradesh floods: Standing crops in hundreds of acres inundated

Standing commercial crops in Krishna and Guntur districts like Sugarcane, banana, and turmeric were inundated as flood discharge from river Krishna peaked to a high of 7.03 lakh cusecs yesterday before slightly receding.

Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh): Standing crops in hundreds of acres were inundated as river Krishna saw a flood of over seven lakh cusecs at Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada on Monday.

Though the flood discharge diminished to 6.46 lakh cusecs by night, fields remained under a sheet of water.

Mostly commercial crops and pulses that were widely grown during this time in Krishna and Guntur districts were affected by the flood. Sugarcane, banana, turmeric, papaya, yam, redgram, and Bengal gram crops were the worst hit.

The inflow at Prakasam Barrage dropped further to 5.77 lakh cusecs, but the flow is expected to continue as close to six lakh cusecs of water is being discharged from the upstream K L Rao Sagar at Pulichintala.

The flood discharge at Srisailam was 5.01 lakh cusecs and at Nagarjuna Sagar 4.19 lakh cusecs on Monday night, according to the state Water Resources Department data.

The 'lanka' villages on either bank of the river, downstream the Prakasam Barrage, in Krishna and Guntur districts were marooned as the flood peaked to a high of 7.03 lakh cusecs during the day before slightly receding.

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Four teams of National Disaster Response Force and one of SDRF were sent to different divisions in the two districts to attend to any eventuality even as several affected families were moved out to relief camps from the flood villages.

Information Minister Perni Venkataramaiah took stock of the situation and said they were closely monitoring the deluge and have taken all steps to ensure safety of people.

"The flood is expected to recede gradually but we have fully geared up the district administration to aid the affected people," the Minister said.

As village streams remained swollen due to heavy rains, coupled with the flood flow in the river, road communication network remained cut off, particularly between Vijayawada and Amaravati.

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The Kondaveeti Vagu Lift Irrigation Scheme was operated for the first time to drain out floodwater into the river just behind the Prakasam Barrage. The LIS was meant to prevent flooding of the Amaravati capital region.

Meanwhile, villages in Kolluru and Kollipara mandals in Tenali revenue division of Guntur district were also flooded.

In Krishna district, Thotlavalluru, Nagayalanka, Avanigadda, Mopidevi, Challapalli and Ghantasala mandals were affected.

(With inputs from PTI)