The October 13 issue of the Deccan Chronicle details the weather events leading to the catastrophic floods that have occurred in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, in southern India.

12 districts in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka received 400mm (15.7 inches) of rainfall each day for four consecutive days, starting from September 29.

That is five feet of rain in the same spot over four days!  Extending over an area of thousands of square miles.

In Andhra Pradesh because of a lack of rain-measuring devices and deficiency in communication, there was no warning of flash floods until the floods themselves arrived.  This was the heaviest rainfall since 1901—and the greatest ever for the Krishna River that flows through the area.

The damage to the Srisailam power plant by the Srisailam Dam on the Krishna River, as described in the October 14 issue of  The Hindu, tells the story of the power of the water.  One week after the floods, seven turbines of the power plant lie buried in mud, still submerged under 100 feet of water.

The people and the animals have fared no better than the power plant.  Houses and villages have been washed away.  In the village of Rajoli, 90% of the 500 houses have collapsed.

The temple town of Mantralaya a few days ago lay under 13 feet of water. Now the water has receded, and the streets are filled with sludge and garbage washed there by the flood.

In Karnataka, in the district of Bijapur, farmers who cultivated a few acres of onions and corn, have lost all their crops.

Ancient temples provide shelter 

Also in Karnataka, in the ancient temple complex in Pattadakal, built in the Eighth century, 1,000 people took shelter within the stone buildings, along with their animals—cows, buffaloes and goats.  The floodwaters were waist high, but the stone structures provided a life-saving refuge.

The Visakha Society for Protection and Care of Animals flood relief team has deployed and is at work helping animals in the flooded towns and villages.  Pradeep Nath, President of the VSPCA, writes that during their years of disaster relief since the Tsunami, they have become increasingly able to make use of local labor and resources.  This has a number of advantages.  It is less expense to hire workers in the villages, and it also means that people who’ve been left destitute by the floods will have some income. It also gives the village people valuable experience and training in carrying out relief work, and gives them insight into how the needs of animals can be met following floods.

Consequently, when the VSPCA goes into flood-ravaged areas they hire local vets and vet techs (para-vets).

The Karnool district is now the worst affected, and the VSPCA has put together  three teams of four persons each to help the animals.  They will go into areas where there are no animal welfare groups to provide care for the animals.

The plan is for each team to cover two villages per day. They will set up makeshift camps for the care of those animals who need on-going treatment for a few days.

The dogs will need food and clean water; those who are injured will need vet care; and the same is true for the cats.  It is best if they can have dry food.

Cattle will need special mineral supplements, as well as cattle feed and green grass, and they will need vaccinations to protect them against diseases carried by the flood waters.

Stopping epidemics 

The VSPCA teams are already hard at work providing food and vet care to the animals in the Kurnool District.  They have started in the town of Mantralayam, and will be moving on to twenty villages.

Next they will be going on to Mahboobnagar, and then Vijayawada. The assessment team reported seeing cattle in these places all along the roads and wondered how they had survived.  The team was able to provide food to many of the dogs and cats there.

The district of Mahboobnagar is home to three and a half million people.  It is a land of forested hills, deep valleys and plains.  The Krishna River and the Tungabhadra River, both of which flooded, run through this district.  The city of Vijayawada is located nearer to the Bay of Bengal, in the Krishna District, on the banks of the Krishna River.

As well as the food, mineral supplements and vaccinations, the cattle will also need some shelter.  The wet, muddy conditions prevalent after floods can be very debilitating to animals, so they need to be thoroughly checked, and precautions taken to ward off infectious diseases that breed in the humid, unclean surroundings.  Epidemics can easily start, so time is of the essence and it is urgent that treatment be carried out quickly to forestall the worst diseases.

Last year, during the floods in Orissa, the state just to the north of Andhra Pradesh, the VSPCA worked for forty-five days doing flood relief and saving the lives of a great many animals.  The cost for that operation was $25,000.

How you can help

To donate to help the VSPCA teams reach animals in the flooded areas please click here.

Photos: VSPCA