Salem (TN): A flood warning was issued today (Aug 6, 2004) in parts of neighbouring Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu as the Cauvery continued to swell following heavy rains in catchment areas of the river in Karnataka, officials said.

Dharmapuri District Collector Ashish Bachani issued the flood warning to people living on the banks of Cauvery in the district, through which the river enters the State and also banned bathing in the famous Hogenekal waterfall, they said.

Meanwhile, inflow into the nearby Mettur dam, built across Cauvery and the lifeline of farmers in delta districts, rose drastically, almost touching the 35,000 cusecs mark today.

The inflow more than tripled to 25,752 cusecs at 8 am this morning from around 8,000 cusecs at 4 hrs (IST) yesterday (Aug 5, 2004). It further rose to 34,709 cusecs when the last reading was taken at 11 am, PWD officials said.

The water level in the dam stood at 78.81 feet as against its maximum of 120 feet while the storage was 40.284 tmcft as against its capacity of 93.4 tmcft. Outflow was nil.

Most of the major dams, including the Krishnarajasagar at Mysore, across Cauvery in Karnataka are almost full, they said adding the inflow was expected to increase further.

The heavy inflow has brightened the prospects of an early release of water from the Mettur dam for irrigation, which is already overdue. The dam was not opened on the scheduled date of July 12 in view of low storage.

Farmers in Delta districts of Tamil Nadu have already missed short-term Kuruvai crop due to lack of water and are keeping their fingers crossed on the next Samba crop.

Protesting against the delay in water release, the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam)-led Opposition had on Wednesday (Aug 4, 2004) threatened to picket Government offices on Aug 9 if water was not released by then.