KENDRAPARA: Seaside villagers of Kendrapara were shifted to safer places on Wednesday. The district witnessed heavy rains in the morning with cyclone Titli intensifying into a severe cyclonic storm. Collector Dasarathi Satpathy said people from seaside villages and low-lying areas have been shifted to 116 cyclone shelters besides, schools and colleges. Around 125 country boats and 173 power boats have been kept ready for relief and rescue operations. Ambulances have been kept on standby and dry food, medicines and rice stocked in cyclone shelters. Pregnant women and ailing persons have been shifted to nearest health centres, he added.
On the other hand, farmers in some parts of the district harvested unripe Biali (autumn) paddy on Wednesday. As there are no godowns, farmers have stocked the harvested crops in the agricultural fields after covering them with polythene sheets. In many other areas though, crops are yet to be cut and farmers apprehend that heavy rainfall may damage them.
They said the crops would take another 15 days to ripen but in the wake of the cyclonic storm, they had to harvest the autumn paddy. Deputy Director of Agriculture, Mitrodaya Das said the Agriculture Department advised farmers to cut the unripe crops in the wake of the heavy rains. The cyclone can wreak havoc on the standing crops and farmers might not get the expected yield,” he said.
Apart from lack of godowns to store paddy, farmers are facing shortage of farm labourers to harvest the crops. Minting money from the situation are owners of tractors and paddy harvesting machines who are renting out the vehicles and equipment to farmers at high prices.