Retreating monsoon claimed 12 more lives as the death toll due to rains and floods in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh soared to 205.
Retreating monsoon claimed 12 more lives as the death toll due to torrential rains and rampaging floods in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh soared to 205 today even as relief operations were on in full swing in the two states to provide succour to the affected.
Karnataka, which reported all the 12 fresh deaths, accounted for 168 fatalities and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, where the flood situation in Krishna district remained grim, 37, officials in the two states said.
After wreaking havoc, rains showed signs of let up in Karnataka even as chief minister BS Yeddyurappa appealed to the Centre to declare the worst flooding in the state as a a national disaster.
He sought Rs 10,000 crore assistance for relief measures and rebuilding the 15 rain-ravaged districts.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister K Rosaiah conducted an aerial survey of the flood-battered areas and said the situation was alarming in Krishna and Guntur districts where many villages faced inundation.
The flood situation in Kurnool and Mahbubnagar districts, however, was under control, the Andhra Pradesh chief minister said as army troops rescued the marooned stranded on rooftops of submerged houses.
IAF choppers dropped food packets and water sachets in the devastated areas as the officials said over 13 lakh people had been hit in five districts in the state due to the worst flooding in more than 100 years in the Krishna river basin.
They said the monsoon fury had so far claimed 16 lives in Mahabubnagar, 15 in Kurnool, three in Krishna, two in Nalgonda and one in Guntur.
In Karnataka, where the death count had climbed to 168, heavy rains and surging waters had flattened homes displacing nearly 1,77,400 people who had taken shelter in relief camps.
Home minister VS Acharya said in Bangalore the death toll was likely to mount as 21 people were feared buried under the rubble of homes destroyed in a landslide unleashed by the rains at Karwar in Uttara Kannada district.
Eight helicopters and 73 boats had been engaged in relief and rescue operations in the state, he said.
"Arrangements have been made to air drop food packets to the marooned and 21,200 such packets have already been dropped in Bellary and Bagalkot districts," the home minister said.
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