Mangaluru : Two medical colleges in Dakshina Kannada district have decided to partially shut down hostels. They have asked several boarders to return home, till the water situation improves.

While Kasturba Medical College (KMC) has sent back about 400 MBBS students from the second and third year batches in their hostels till May 15, Father Muller Medical College has sent back about 75 per cent of the boarders.

Both the colleges mainly depend on the Netravathi waters supplied to the city from the Thumbe vented dam, where the storage levels fell to 5.8 ft against a maximum 13 ft.

Though the colleges have borewells and open wells, the water table in them has gone very low.

According to M. Venkataraya Prabhu, Dean, KMC, the college has about 2,000 students, including some day scholars, in eight hostels. Of them, about 400 MBBS students from two hostels have been sent back till May 15.

Rudolph D’Sa, Administrative Officer, Father Muller Medical College, said that eight hostels have about 2,500 students from medical, para medical and nursing streams.