Four more bodies recovered, flood toll climbs to 58 in Karnataka

With the recovery of four bodies in Hassan district, the toll in the devastating floods and incessant rains in parts of Karnataka has gone up to 58, authorities said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, with inflows into the reservoirs steadily decreasing, the situation in the affected districts in north, coastal, malnad and south interior Karnataka has improved further.

According to an official update, senior officers camping in the districts are overseeing relief operations, which are in full swing.

"Damaged roads are being restored on war-footing for movement of men and materials", it said.

Joint rescue teams comprising personnel from State Disaster Response Force, National Disaster Response Force and Army have evacuated nearly 6.98 lakh people as on today, the official note said.

As many as 1,160 relief camps are operational, where clean drinking water, food and other relief materials are being provided to nearly four lakh people housed in them.

According to the government, 103 taluks in 22 districts have been affected by floods and incessant rains in the past few days, resulting in loss of agriculture and horticulture crops on 4.58 lakh hectares and damaging 56,381 houses.

"There is extensive damage to critical infrastructure such as roads, tanks, pipelines, schools and electrical infrastructure etc. Damage assessment is in progress", it said.