Shaik Sharif tightly clasped the hand of his terrified mother, clinging to the roof of their crumbling house as the relentless floodwaters of the Palair River swirled around early last Sunday. “We were stranded on the rooftop for nearly five hours, but then the flood overwhelmed us. The structure we stood on eventually gave way, taking my parents away with it,” recalls the visibly shaken 19-year-old youth of Nayakangudem village in Kusumanchi mandal of Khammam district.
A second-year B.Tech student of a private college in Khammam, Sharif miraculously survived with the help of locals when the river wreaked havoc on parts of the village on September 1, 2024. Caught unawares by the sudden, ferocious flooding, Sharif and his family had climbed onto the roofing sheet of their house, situated just 500 meters from the Palair surplus weir, in a desperate bid for safety following relentless rain the previous night.
“A drone flew overhead and dropped life jackets around Sunday noon, rekindling hopes of survival but things took a turn for the worse an hour later when three rooms of our house got washed away. Close to 1.30 p.m., we lost all hope. The floodwaters showed no signs of abating and we were pulled down,” Sharif recalls.
In the blink of an eye, his father, Shaik Yakub, was swept away and moments later, his mother, Saidabee, followed. With the aid of locals and police, Sharif managed to reach a partially submerged stretch of the old Khammam-Suryapet highway, battling the fierce torrent.
The couple’s death has left Sharif and his elder brother Shaik Yusuf, a B.Tech final year student, devastated.
A close relative, who did not wish to be identified, said that a timely rescue operation could have saved their lives. But local officials maintain that though helicopter services were requisitioned, choppers based in State capital Hyderabad and in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh could not take off due to adverse weather conditions.
Last Sunday (September 1, 2024), Kusumanchi mandal recorded 315.6 mm of rainfall, and the water level in Palair reservoir rapidly rose to 32 feet as against its full reservoir level of 23 feet. Flash floods in the Munneru and Akeru rivers, triggered by heavy rainfall in their catchment areas on Saturday night, caused widespread havoc across Khammam and Mahabubabad districts. The Munneru swelled to 36 feet, its highest level in decades, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.
Khammam town and its surrounding villages were the worst hit, with hundreds of houses submerged in various colonies, leaving residents stranded on rooftops for hours.
Also Read: Central Ministers to visit flood-hit Khammam on September 6
The unprecedented rainfall, coupled with breaches in several tanks in the catchment areas of both rivers, fuelled the flood’s fury. Kakarvai in Tirumalayapalem mandal of Khammam district recorded the highest rainfall at 52.1 centimetres, followed by Inugurthy in Mahabubabad district at 45.6 centimetres during the 24-hour period ending at 8 a.m. on Sunday.
A rain assessment report by the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development department reveals a bleak picture: 575 kilometres of rural roads in the State have been damaged, with repair costs estimated at ₹421 crore. Water supply systems under the Mission Bhagiratha scheme, a safe drinking water project for every village in Telangana, were also impacted, leaving 5,700 habitations without access to clean water. So far, only 2,000 habitations have seen partial restoration, despite ongoing efforts.
In deep waters
Munneru, a tributary of the Krishna river, originates in Telangana’s Warangal district. It flows for a length of around 195 kilometres through Mahabubabad and Khammam districts of Telangana before joining the Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh’s erstwhile composite Krishna district. Within Khammam Municipal Corporation limits, it meanders through densely populated residential areas for a stretch of 4 kilometres in the fort town, which has a population of over 3 lakh.
This year’s flooding in the residential colonies along the Munneru river is more severe than last year’s. Kalvoddu, Mothinagar, Bokkalagadda, Venkateshwara Nagar, and Manchikanti Colony are among the worst affected. Several villages in the Madhira Assembly constituency, bordering Andhra Pradesh’s NTR district, also bore the brunt of the recent heavy rains.
As many as nine flood victims, including a cement shop owner, a woman labourer, her husband, and two sons, faced a harrowing 10-plus hours after being stranded on the flooded Prakashnagar bridge in Khammam. Fearful and desperate, they waited late into the evening, hoping for helicopters to airlift them to safety.
Also Read: Two of family swept away by floodwaters; Munneru in spate in Khammam
In a show of community spirit, residents of Venkatagiri, a village located near the bridge, arranged a drone to deliver food and water to the stranded victims and their families. The turning point came with a heroic rescue led by Subhan, a JCB operator from Haryana. Risking his own life, he drove the earthmover onto the flooded bridge and steered all nine victims to safety amid cheer and applause from the locals.
“We saw snakes in the water around us and feared for our lives,” recalls Srinivas, one of the survivors. “Just when we had given up hope, the JCB operator arrived and saved us against all odds,” shares another survivor.
Paramesh, a labourer at a local rice mill, is still struggling to cope with the devastation caused by the flood. “The Munneru swallowed everything we owned, leaving us penniless. I don’t know how we will clear the mounds of mud in our house and start over,” he laments.
Others express frustration at the lack of preparedness. “If we had received early warnings and been evacuated to relief camps in time, this situation could have been avoided,” rues a flood victim from Bokkalagadda in Khammam district.
In the tragedy, young agricultural scientist Nunavath Ashwini (27) and her father, Mothilal (51), from Gangaram Thanda in Khammam district, lost their lives to the devastating floods in Mahabubabad district. She was visiting her native village to attend her brother’s engagement ceremony and celebrate his new government job. Tragedy struck when she was heading to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad along with her father. The duo died when their car was washed into the swollen Akeru river at Purushothamaya Gudem on Sunday (September 1, 2024).
Ashwini, hailing from a remote tribal village, had risen to prominence as an agricultural scientist at the ICAR-National Institute of Biotic Stress Management in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
Retired executive engineer of the Irrigation department, Balachandar contends that encroachment of water bodies disrupted their natural flow, worsening the flooding. He advises removing all unauthorised structures within the full tank level (FTL) and buffer zones of Lakaram and other tanks in and around Khammam town. Maintaining FTL boundaries using a geo-tagging system is also suggested as a preventive measure.
In the face of danger and despair
Recent heavy rains across Telangana left a trail of devastation in the erstwhile Warangal region too, primarily in Mahabubabad, Mulugu, and Suryapet districts.
In the Huzurnagar constituency of Suryapet, Minister for Irrigation, Food & Civil Supplies, N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, toured flood-ravaged areas, witnessing firsthand the damage caused by an unprecedented 30 centimetres of rainfall on August 31. Roads were washed away, homes inundated, and thousands of acres of crops destroyed, leaving rural communities in dire straits.
Also Read: Warangal flood victims urged to take shelter in relief camps amid heavy rains
In Mahabubabad district, the Akeru Vagu stream swelled to destructive levels, forcing entire families out of their homes. Guguloth Dwali, a resident of Seetharam thanda, recalls the terrifying moment her house flooded. “We were swept from our room to a tree in front of the house,” she said. Her son, Bhima, guided them to the terrace, where they endured 10 hours of fear and uncertainty. “The police officer who rescued us was like a godsend,” she adds.
For many, the floods have not only claimed lives but also destroyed livelihoods. Guguloth Ravi, 40, a farmer, said he lost everything. “We woke up to the sound of goats bleating, and before we knew it, the water was waist-deep,” he recounts. His family spent eight hours on the terrace before being rescued. “We lost two bulls, 10 goats, and our crops. Now, we have nothing to eat,” he laments.
As the floodwaters recede, the devastation is laid bare. Crops spanning 30,000 acres have been destroyed, leaving farmers in financial ruin. Essential services are in disarray, with damaged roads, downed power lines, and contaminated water supplies adding to the suffering.
Also Read: 56 passengers of TGSRTC bus rescued in Warangal district
Heavy rains have submerged vast agricultural fields, primarily paddy, along the Godavari river in the Eturnagaram and Mangapet mandals of Mulugu district. “We have faced this issue for decades. The previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS)-led government promised to build a protection wall along the Godavari to prevent flooding, but it remains only on paper,” sayid Suresh, a Dalit activist from Podumuru village in Mangapet mandal.
Destruction, loss and apathy
Since 2014, the village has lost 120 acres of land to erosion, with 40 acres of paddy fields now submerged, claims Suresh, accusing Irrigation officials of neglecting the construction of much-needed retaining walls.
A villager recalls that local MLA and Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Danasari Anasuya, bettter known as Seethakka, had raised the issue of completing the flood bank and retaining wall in the Legislative Assembly back in 2020. Those works were meant to prevent flooding along the Godavari river in Mulugu district.
Every monsoon, hundreds of acres of farmland are submerged in Kannaigudem, Eturnagaram, and Mangapet mandals. A government order for the flood protection wall was issued by Irrigation department in July 2019, allocating ₹137.23 crore for the project. However, the file is pending with the government, delaying crucial flood prevention measures, said an official.
In an unusual weather event, nearly 50,000 trees fell in a linear pattern across 200 hectares of the Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary in Mulugu district, leaving forest officials astonished. This rare phenomenon is believed to have been caused by straight-line winds.
Simultaneously, a breach in the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) Left Canal (Lal Bahadur Canal) on the morning of September 1 near Kagitha Ramachandrapuram village in Nadigudem mandal of Suryapet district left nearly 300 acres of agricultural fields inundated. Project officials quickly closed the head regulator of the Left Canal by 9 a.m. to prevent water wastage.
Despite the efforts, sand dunes have formed in the fields, mainly in paddy areas. Farmers have faced losses of around ₹30,000 per acre, which includes expenses for tilling, transplantation, fertilizer, and nursery.
Local authorities estimate that about 300 acres of standing crops, mostly paddy, were damaged due to flooding from the breached canal. Minister Uttam Reddy, who visited the affected area on September 2, noted that the recent rainfall, the highest in the past 50 years, has severely impacted standing crops across Huzurnagar and Kodad constituencies.
A resident of the Kagitha Ramachandrapuram village criticises NSP officials for the breach in the canal, alleging it happened because they closed a sluice near the village to prioritise water supply to Khammam district, which is not regular practice. Locals voice their frustration, stating that their previous complaints were ignored. “A similar breach had occurred in the NSP flood canal (low level) at Marepalli in Anumula mandal last August,” the resident adds.
Heavy rains have also severely impacted residents in low-lying areas of the tri-cities — Warangal, Hanamkonda, and Kazipet — within the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) jurisdiction. Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Tanaji Wakade said several colonies were inundated on September 2. As many as 27 relief camps had been set up across Warangal to accommodate the displaced, with around 400 people relocated to these centres, she adds.
M.Santosh, a resident of Hanamkonda, accuses the GWMC of failing to complete widening and diversion of stormwater drains before monsoon. “This issue recurs every rainy season. Officials only take preventive measures after the rains begin. I don’t understand why these works aren’t completed before monsoon begins,” he remarks.
Political slugfest
Even as the water receded, a blame game erupted between the ruling and Opposition parties over the handling of the crisis.
The ruling Congress has blamed the extensive flooding in Khammam town on rampant encroachments of nalas and water bodies during the previous BRS regime. In response, BRS, now the main Opposition, accused the Congress government of ignoring heavy rain forecasts and failing to evacuate residents from low-lying areas or have rescue teams on standby.
Revenue department sources say around 49,000 people were affected by rains and floods in Khammam district. Of those, 7,090 were sheltered in 39 relief camps across the district.
BRS working president and Sircilla MLA K.T. Rama Rao has criticised the government for ‘downplaying’ the disaster. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he said: “It is disrespectful to ignore or lie about a death and to not acknowledge it.” Urging authorities to provide accurate figures and offer support to affected families, he said while official reports cite 16 deaths, the actual number is 31.
Published – September 06, 2024 11:40 am IST