Belgaum: Though the people of this city are used to living with incessant rain for weeks, the monsoon, which has hit the city a week in advance this year, has disrupted life and trading activities.

Many people are forced to remain indoors due to continuous showers for a week with the clouds showing no signs of clearing. The worst affected are schoolchildren with no proper conveyance. Similar is the case of street hawkers and petty traders including vegetable and fruit vendors.

All the 10 taluks in the district received moderate to good rainfall, much more than the normal rainfall during second half of May. With the catchment areas of the Markandeya, Malaprabha, Ghataprabha, and the Krishna receiving good rainfall, the water levels in these rivers is steadily increasing resulting in increased inflow into the Ghataprabha and Malaprabha dams for the past two days.

As against the normal rainfall of 84 mm for May, Belgaum taluk received 467.1 mm between May 15 and 31, particularly from May 26 to 31; the highest rainfall of 1,946.6 mm was recorded in raingauge stations of Belgaum Inspection Bungalow followed by Railway station (267.4 mm), Uchagaon (258.3 mm), Bagewadi (242.6 mm) and Sambra (207.2 mm). Similarly, as against normal rainfall of 64 mm, Khanapur taluk received 534.8 mm. Hukkeri received 792.8 mm as against the normal rainfall of 79.8 mm; Chikkodi 520.9 mm (57.7 mm normal), Athani 438.5 mm (52.8 mm), Raibag 260.0 mm (47.8 mm), Ramdurg 178.1 mm (56 mm), Bailhongal 507.8 mm (71.2 mm ), Saundatti 81.2 mm (72.1 mm) and Gokak 237.5mm (66.7 mm).

During the first two days of June, Belgaum taluk received a total of 42.8 mm, Khanapur 51.4 mm, Hukkeri 15.2 mm, Chikkodi 8.6 mm, Athani 1.2 mm, Raibag 2.0 mm, Ramdurg 1.3 mm, Bailhongal 5.1 mm, Saundatti 2.6 mm. However, Gokak taluk did not receive any rainfall.

Meanwhile, the district administration has taken steps and kept the administrative apparatus ready to deal with any eventuality following threats of floods in the Krishna and the Ghataprabha.

A control room has been set up to monitor the situation round the clock.

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