Seventeen tribal habitations in Andhra Pradesh’s Polavaram district were submerged on Monday, September 28, 2026, as the Godavari River surged toward its first flood warning threshold following heavy regional rainfall. Authorities have alerted 171 villages across the district and put relief measures in place.
The Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage at Dowleswaram recorded an inflow of 9.66 lakh cusecs at 7 a.m. on Monday, approaching the 10-lakh cusecs threshold that triggers the first flood warning for the Godavari valley and delta regions. According to the Godavari Flood Report-2026, inflows into the river at Dowleswaram continue to rise, with at least 1,400 cusecs of water being released into irrigation canals in the Godavari Delta.
Water resources officials operated the gates at the Polavaram project in an effort to regulate the river flow and keep levels at the barrage below the first warning mark. Upstream gauge readings indicated that water levels at Kunavaram, Chinturu, and Polavaram were beginning to fall by Monday afternoon.
The surge in water levels follows heavy rainfall across Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh triggered by a deep depression last week. Additional floodwaters are being carried into the Godavari by tributaries including the Sabari and Sileru rivers. Inflow into the Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage had risen sharply from approximately 83,000 cusecs recorded in the 24 hours leading into the morning of Thursday, September 24, according to the Andhra Pradesh Water Resources Information and Management System (APWRIMS).
APWRIMS forecasting data projected peak flows at the barrage to reach about 10.1 lakh cusecs on Monday before tapering to 9.8 lakh cusecs on Tuesday and easing to 8 lakh cusecs by Wednesday, September 30.
The present swelling represents the second major flood event along the river this season. An earlier flood phase in August 2026 inundated 971 houses across 72 habitations in Polavaram district, impacting more than 32,000 people, alongside several thousand residents downstream in the Godavari Delta.
At the Sir Arthur Cotton Barrage, official flood warnings are issued at progressive thresholds: the first warning at 10 lakh cusecs, the second at 13 lakh cusecs, and the third at 17 lakh cusecs. Historical records show that the Godavari has breached the second warning level more than 36 times across stations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana over the past seven decades. In 2022, flooding exceeded the third warning mark, causing an estimated ₹2,000 crore in damages to infrastructure and crops. The river’s highest recorded peak occurred in August 1986, when an unprecedented discharge of over 35 lakh cusecs caused widespread destruction between Bhadrachalam and the Papikonda hill range.
Sources
– [The Hindu](https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/17-tribal-habitations-under-water-in-andhras-polavaram-as-godavari-nears-first-flood-warning/article71518489.ece)
Source: The Hindu – National
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Story synopsis gathered from: The Hindu – National — source
