Banasura Sagar
Wayanad district · KSEB · Karamanathodu basin · report 01 Nov 2026, 11:00 IST
Storage
78.3%
Previous 78.3%
Water level
772.00 m (2532.8 ft)
FRL 770.00 m (2526.2 ft)
Spillway release
—
Latest report
Rain forecast
8 mm
Next 72h 40 mm
Storage & water level — last 30 days
Risk breakdown
- • Data check: Reported level 772.00 m and FRL 770.00 m are not a plausible pair — freeboard withheld.
- • Level 772.00 m is below the blue alert level of 774.10 m
Rate of rise(derived)
0.00 m / 24 h
Downstream exposure
The downstream reach and local body list for Banasura Sagar have not been transcribed from a District Disaster Management Plan yet, so none are shown.
District control room: 1077 / 04936-204151
Rule curve — seasonal operating target
No rule curve (seasonal guide curve) is published for Banasura Sagar in a form this platform can verify, so none is shown. Where an operating curve is published — as for Idukki after the 2018 floods — it is plotted against actual storage instead of being estimated.
Rainfall forecast — next 48 hours
Spillway releases
Current weather at the dam
- Temperature
- 20.1°C
- Humidity
- 100%
- Rain 24h
- 1.2 mm
- Wind
- 1 km/h
- Gusts
- 12 km/h
- Pressure
- 903 hPa
AI analysis
Banasura Sagar is at yellow alert with storage steady at 79.08%; the reported water level is 772.1 m, 2.1 m above the stated FRL of 770 m, while spill remains 0 cumecs. Conditions are being managed through the tunnel gate, opened 50%, with 0.59 MCM discharged; with almost no rain in the next 24 hours and 9.4 mm forecast over 72 hours, the next alert level would be triggered if storage or water level rises to the reservoir’s defined orange-alert threshold.
- Controlled release alert — Banasura Sagar · 10 Oct 2026, 11:37 IST
- Controlled release alert — Banasura Sagar · 30 Aug 2026, 13:37 IST
- Danger alert — Banasura Sagar · 03 Aug 2026, 10:14 IST
Environmental & carbon accounting
Net carbon sink- Reservoir methane (gross)
- 3,919 t CO₂e /yr
- Green carbon — catchment forest
- 14,640 t CO₂e /yr
- Blue carbon — sediment burial
- 418 t CO₂e /yr
- Hydropower grid offset
- Not enough data /yr
CH₄ from flooded land × GWP-100 (27), age-adjusted
Western Ghats forest sink, 60% forest cover assumed
≈ 418 indicative credits/yr
vs CEA grid 0.716 kg CO₂/kWh, 35% capacity factor
Net catchment balance: 11,139 t CO₂e/yr (forest + sediment sinks minus reservoir methane)
Estimate, not a measurement — built from IPCC 2019 Flooded Lands factors and public dam data. Kerala does not publish measured reservoir emissions. Credits shown are indicative, not registered. How this is calculated
Reservoir information bulletin
- Commissioned
- 2005
- Dam type
- Earth fill
- Height
- 38.5 m (126.3 ft)
- Length
- 685 m (2247.4 ft)
- Gross capacity
- 209.0 MCM
- Live capacity
- 209.0 MCM
- Catchment area
- 61 km²
- Full reservoir level
- 770.00 m (2526.2 ft)
- Power station
- —
- Installed capacity
- —
- Purpose
- Irrigation and hydro augmentation
- Operator
- KSEB
- River
- Karamanathodu
- Basin
- Kabini
- Nearby towns
- Padinjarathara, Kalpetta
- Emergency contact
- 1077 / 04936-202249
Banasura Sagar in Wayanad is the largest earth dam in India and the second largest in Asia. It was built across the Karamanathodu, a tributary of the Kabini, to augment the Kuttiady hydroelectric scheme and support irrigation.