BANGALORE: The water levels in Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) in Mandya district and Almatti in Bijapur, the lifelines for drinking water and irrigation in the Cauvery and Krishna basins, have almost touc

With water level in Almatti dam in Bijapur district, hovering at 512.38 metres, as against the maximum of 519.6 metres, areas surrounding the dam are expected to face acute shortage of water for both irrigation and drinking purposes akin to Cauvery basin areas.

According to Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Limited officials, as against the impounding capacity of 123 tmc ft, the water at the dam was 43.323 tmc ft, with dead storage at 17.62 tms ft and outflow being 7,850 cusecs.

“Where there is a will, there is a way”, goes the adage. It has come true in case of farmers of Krishna belt in Bagalkot district. The farmers in Jamkhandi taluk, suffering huge losses due to the shortage of water to the sugarcane crop, have come together and completed within a fortnight a huge project of lifting 1 TMCFT of water from downstream backwaters of the Almatti dam to upstream on River Krishna and storing it in Chikkapadasalagi barrage for summer.

Without waiting for the government, the farmers under the banner of ‘Krishna Teera Raitha Sangha’ mobilised funds, labour and material on their own and completed the task they had taken up as a challenge.

In a bid to deal with the dipping water level in almost all reservoirs across the State, the government on Wednesday decided to release Rs 176 crore for drought and flood-related works. Rs one crore has been earmarked for each of the 123 drought-affected taluks.

Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda, as instructed by the party high command, held a meeting to review the prevailing drought situation. Surprisingly, his detractors Agriculture Minister Umesh Katti and Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai were present. Minor Irrigation Minister Govind Karjol too attended the meeting.

The first project to be taken up in the State by the National Thermal Power Corporation requires 3,500 acres of land, of which 1,923 acre has already been acquired.

The NTPC officials held a meeting with the farmers on Saturday and cleared the way for acquisition of rest of the land by agreeing to pay a special compensation of Rs two lakh per acre.

Illegal stone quarrying near Almatti can have disastrous consequences, fear greens. Stone quarrying goes on unhindered on the banks of River Krishna, even as locals allege that officials of Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Limited (KBJNL) are turning a blind eye to the illegality.

The national river policy stipulates that stone quarrying should not be conducted on the banks of any river. It is feared that the quarrying may cause damage to the nearby bridges on the Parvati Katta road (a road bridge and the railway bridge) and the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya. The dawn to dusk stone quarrying in and around the Krishna river basin has invited the wrath of environmentalists.

New Delhi National Green Tribunal has sought a reply from the ministry of environment and forest (MoEF) on a plea challenging the environmental clearance granted to Kudgi Super Thermal Power Project Stage-I (2,400 MW) in Karnataka.

A bench headed tribunal’s acting chairperson AS Naidusought MoEF's response on the plea seeking quashing of clearance granted on January 25, to the NTPC project in Bijapur.

State-owned power producer NTPC today said it got Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) clearance for its 2,400-Mw (3x800 MW), Stage-I Kudgi Super Thermal Power Project being set up in Bijapur district of adjoining Karnataka.

The board of directors recently cleared the investment proposal of Rs 15,166 crore for setting up the project, NTPC said in a statement here.

NTPC Ltd's first ultra-mega power project (UMPP) of 4,000 MW, coming up at Kudgi in Bijapur district of Karnataka, is all set to award contracts for the first phase of 3 by 800 MW once it secures n

At least one person was killed and scores of villages inundated in the torrential rains that lashed the state since Monday night.