The recent rains have brought cheer to farmers in the district who have raised crops belatedly during kharif as the southwest monsoon had played truant in the early phase The inflows into Tungabhadra reservoir have increased in the past couple of days.
At present, the reservoir is getting 49,434 cusecs of water with abundant rains in Agumbhe and Sivamogga areas in Karnataka and the irrigation officials had lifted all the crest gates to release 53,668 cusecs of water on Tuesday.
With abundant rains in Karnataka and increased inflows, the irrigation officials are expecting that the reservoir will receive at least 20 TMCs more water than what they have expected at the beginning of the kharif season this year.
As the reservoir has three canals - left canal, low level canal and high level canal, the district will get 5 to 6 TMCs of additional water as its share this year and the remaining goes to Karnataka.
With the scanty rainfall in June and July, the irrigation officials estimated that the reservoir will get 130 TMCs of water during the season, but with the recent rains they expect that the reservoir would get 150 TMCs of water.
The irrigation advisory board had suggested the farmers of HLC ayacut to take up cultivation in 33,500 acres and 32,500 acres during kharif and rabi seasons respectively.
According to their estimations, the irrigation officials expected that they could supply water to around 33,000 acres in each season. But with the recent rains lashing Karnataka, the official sources say that the farmers can increase the extent of cultivation during rabi season.
The district administration also heaved a sigh of relief with the increased inflows into reservoir as they are finding it difficult to meet the drinking water requirements. The irrigation officials have postponed release of drinking water into Chitravati branch canal as the Tungabhadra was receiving less inflows.
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