6 including, priest, a bride’s parents, washed away in Bengaluru

At least six people died in the heavy rainfall in northwestern Bengaluru. All the deaths occurred in lower middle-class localities and next to major stormwater drains that were overflowing from rainfall that lasted three to four hours.

Vasudeva Bhat, 40, a priest at a temple in the Kurubarahalli region of northwestern Bengaluru, tumbled into a drain while trying to unclog a drain that flowed near the house and the temple amid heavy rain on the evening of October 13. His body was found the next day, nearly 1 km from the spot where he had fallen in.

In another incident wife and daughter of Shivarudrappa, 60, a daily wage earner were drowned when they tried to leave their home by walking through the flowing water to escape the water overflowing from the drain into their house. While his daughter, Pushpa, 22, and wife Ningamma, 45, was being washed away by rain, Shivarudrappa was occupied trying to get his young grandchildren to safer ground. Pushpa’s body was found nearly 10 km away.

The heavy rains resulted in wall collapse too. In one such incident Venkatappa, 48, and Kamalamma, 45, were killed when a wall collapsed while the family was evacuating the house. Their daughter Vani Venkatappa, 25, was going to get married in November.

Narasamma, 18 was also washed away in an open stormwater drain when she had ventured out for her morning ablutions.

Bengaluru has become a concrete jungle during the last two decades which disrupted the sewage and drainage systems resulting in extensive flooding during heavy rain in many parts of the city. Small amounts of rain can inundate low-lying areas because the lake system in Bengaluru, which lay at the core of a drainage system, has been virtually destroyed by encroachment of lakes for real estate over the years.

As reported by the Indian Express, this October, Bengaluru has had 345 mm of rainfall, which is 243 mm above normal.