Bengaluru records highest rainfall in 115 years; death toll mounts to 10

Bengaluru: As the city reels under an incessant downpour, the Indian Meteorological Department on Saturday recorded the highest rainfall in at least 115 years with the death toll mounting to 10.

The annual rainfall for Bengaluru is 1615.2mm as on Saturday morning is the highest record ever that surpassed the earlier record of 1606.8 mm in 2005.

Earlier in the day, a 16-year-old girl drowned in an overflowing drain at Krishnappa Garden whose body was later recovered at some distance.

Meanwhile, the city civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike along with the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force fished out the body of 22-year-old Pushpa from a storm-water drain at Kumbalgodu on Sunday morning.

The constant rainfall for the past two months in Bengaluru shows that the city is somewhat facing unique weather condition where the south-west monsoon has extended and the north-east monsoon is about to arrive, a senior official at the IMD said.

"The combination of the weather system coupled by low pressure situation created in the Arabian Sea is resulting in showers over interior Karnataka and Bengaluru falls in this region," he said.

"One has to analyse the possible relation to climate change as extreme weather events are related to it. Bengaluru is a growing city and has been experiencing heat island effect which further results in rainfall after a prolonged harsh summer or dry run," he added.

Earlier, a day after the Chief Minister instructed Bengaluru Development Minister KJ George, local MLAs and the city`s municipal corporation to fill all 16,000 potholes dotting Bangalore`s roads within 15 days, a 21-year-old woman became the fourth victim of accidents caused by craters.