Palanpur: There has been heavy rain in Mount Abu in Rajasthan and Amirgadh, Palanpur, Dantiwada and other areas of Banaskantha district of North Gujarat following which Sipu and Dantiwada dams have witnessed fresh inflow of water. As on midnight 7 of 12 gates in Sipu dam are opened for release of 50,000 cu sec water. Downstream area villages are alerted and administration has shifted at least 2,000 persons to safer places.

Sipu dam located in Dhanera taluka of Banaskantha district has 1,222 sq km catchment area of which 970 sq km is in other state while only 252 sq km is in Gujarat. River Sipu is tributary of Banas river.

Due to overflowing Kesua village pond in Rajasthan, Dhanera belt in Gujarat started receiving heavy inflow of water. Sipu had inflow of nearly 1.50 lakh cu sec water at around midnight.

It should be noted that as per the figures available late in the evening on Sunday, in last 12 hours Amirgadh witnessed 104 mm rain while Dhanera had 105 mm and Vadgam 109 mm rainfall. It’s worth mentioning here that Banaskantha river was carrying 30,000 cu sec water in the afternoon period due to heavy rain in Mount Abu.

At 1.00 am, the level of water in Dantiwada dam was 578.60 ft. The dam was still 26 ft unfilled. Danger level at Dantiwada dam is 604 ft. Around 1,37,000 cu sec inflow was witnessed.

In more details, the pond of Jasra was overflowing. Nearly 150 families were shifted to safe places. Dantiwada taluka’s Vavdhara village was waterlogged. The villagers took shelter in local school.

Meanwhile anganwadis in Banaskantha district are declared closed today. All schools will have holiday today as per a decision taken by the district administration.

DeshGujarat