Polavaram on alert as Sabari swells, relief boats readied at Kunavaram

Authorities in Polavaram district are bracing for a sharp rise in the Sabari river, with inflow at Chintoor expected to reach ten lakh cusecs by Saturday evening. The river was carrying close to 2.8 lakh cusecs on Friday.

Heavy rain over two days in Chhattisgarh and Odisha has fed the catchment areas of the Sabari and Sileru rivers, pushing up flows into the district.

District Collector K. Dinesh Kumar said residents of low-lying areas, including stretches that fall under the submergence zone of the Polavaram irrigation project, have been alerted. Five tourism boats and 12 mechanised boats have been positioned at Kunavaram for relief work. The areas most at risk are being mapped on the basis of the submergence pattern seen during the 2022 Godavari floods, he said.

Tourism activity has been barred and boating suspended on the Godavari, while entry to tourist spots and waterfalls across the district has been restricted amid the continuing rain.

Separately, displaced families from Koyaguru village staged a dharna in the waters of the Sabari on Friday, pressing for implementation of the Resettlement and Rehabilitation package. The protest lasted more than four hours and was called off after Integrated Chintoor Tribal Development Agency Project Officer Subham Nokwal reached the village and fixed talks on the package for next Monday.

In East Godavari district, Minister for Tourism and Culture Kandula Durgesh inspected paddy fields submerged by the Yerra Kaluva, a small river flowing through the Nidadavolu assembly constituency. He said 926 acres of paddy in the constituency have been inundated after two days of continuous rain, and that all affected fields would be enumerated.