BHUBANESWAR: Even as the flood situation in the State improved with water level of the rivers receding, more than two lakh people in 209 villages remained marooned.
The flood has affected over 35.75 lakh people in 23 districts of the State with the death toll rising to 46. According to a preliminary estimate, crop on 3.5 lakh hectares of land has been affected and 41,801 houses damaged in the flood.
According to sources in the office of Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), 95,564 people in 115 villages in Puri district and 51,247 people in 52 villages in Kendrapara district are still marooned. The situation in Jagatsinghpur district also remained grim with 34,710 people of 19 villages surrounded by flood water. People in Bhadrak, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur and Khurda also continue to remain marooned since a week. “We are optimistic that water will recede from all the villages in the next two days,” Deputy Relief Commissioner Prabhat Ranjan Mohapatra said.
However, the number of relief camps has come down to 55 from 100 on Tuesday with a large number of people returning to their homes. The water level in Hirakud reservoir has also gone down to 618.79 feet from 618.91 in the evening. While 2,14,237 lakh cusec of water was entering the reservoir, 2,71,442 lakh cusec was being released from 16 gates.
Sources in SRC said water level of Bansadhara was rising at Kashinagar. The water level in different rivers is likely to recede further as there has been no rain either in the upper or lower catchment areas.