MUMBAI, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Heavy rain lashed several parts of India's southwestern state of Karnataka on Thursday with more unseasonal rains predicted by India Meteorological Department (IMD) till Sunday.

IMD has issued a yellow alert for few districts in the state indicating travel delays and disruptions due to bad weather.

"Due to the easterly waves, coastal Karnataka is likely to experience light to moderate rainfall till January 10. North Interior Karnataka will receive isolated rainfall till the 10th. South Interior Karnataka is likely to receive light to moderate scattered rainfall on Thursday as well and light rainfall from January 8 to 10," said C S Patil, IMD director in-charge, Bengaluru.

Karnataka's political capital Bengaluru recorded 9 mm of rain up to 5:30 p.m. local time.

The current spell of unseasonal rains has damaged crops like cotton, maize, sunflower and also affected the ongoing harvest of coffee in the state, local media reports said.

Manoj Rajan, special commissioner for disaster management for the state said, "Under the influence of wind continuity, a trough at low-level easterlies over Karnataka state and due to cyclonic circulation, a trough over the central part of Arabian sea and southern part of Bay of Bengal have formed."

As a result of this, most districts of Karnataka are very likely to receive fairly widespread light to moderate rains; and at isolated places, heavy to very heavy rains associated with thunder activity during the next 48 hours, Rajan said. Enditem

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