Previously, a piece of news made a buzz when the Manjunatheshwara Temple in Dharmasthala asked its devotees to postpone their temple visit temporarily due to severe water shortage in the Dakshina Kannada region. Taking things under consideration, it seems devotees from Sankenahalli of Basavanagudi Bengaluru sent 6,780 liters of drinking water as offering to the temple on Monday, May 20.
Devotees Offered Water to the temple
This incident came into notice when devotees brought the water to the temple in their vehicles. Indeed, which was about 6,780 liters of water filled in 339 cans 20-liter individual capacity.
D Veerendra Hegde who is a Dharmadhikari in Dharmasthala said that this water was being used for cooking rice in the Annapurna Chatra and for drinking purposes of the devotees.
Previously a similar incident took place where members of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Officials’ and Employees’ Welfare Association, donated 10,000 liters of water to Dharmasthala which was also used for cooking and supplying drinking water to the devotees.
Water Crisis
Earlier a report from Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) said, the freshwater flow has stopped in all major rivers in the coastal belt including Netravathi, Phalguni, Swarna, Chakra, Varahi, Sharavathi, Aghanashini, and Kali – all of which are located in the coastal belt. Groundwater levels have depleted and reached 30-40 meters below ground level in Mangaluru. These reasons had led the temple authorities forcing to appeal the devotees to postpone their temple visit temporarily.
Amid the water crisis, the government looks to construct a new vented dam near Dharmasthala, which is facing a severe water crisis. This is in addition to the existing one across the Netravathi at ‘snana ghatta’, about 3 km away from Dharmasthala, supplying water to the Lord Manjunatha temple and the town. River Nethravathi.
