BHUBANESWAR: With low pressure-induced heavy rainfall inundating vast tracts of agricultural land in several districts, the state government has directed officials to immediately assess crop damage and ensure compensation reaches affected farmers without delay.
Revenue and Disaster Management (R&DM) minister Suresh Pujari instructed district administrations in the affected areas to conduct survey, assess the extent of crop loss and submit reports to the department at the earliest.
“As of now, there has been no report of any crop damage. However, collectors of rain-affected districts will assess if there has been any loss to standing crops and submit their report,” said special relief commissioner (SRC) Rajesh Prabhakar Patil.
The SRC said instruction has also been given for disbursement of compensation to affected farmers within 24 hours of the damage assessment.
As per reports, heavy downpour has impacted Muribahal and Bangomunda of Balangir where water has reportedly entered vast stretches of agricultural land, triggering fear over damage to standing crops in the event of further rain.
Jajpur district has also reported at least two breaches in the embankment of the Kani river, a distributary of the Baitarani, at Kantapada in Dasarathpur block, leading to submergence of nearby agricultural fields. Floodwater has inundated parts of Mangalpur, Duduraanta, Shushua, Kanikapada and other low-lying areas.
Heavy rain also inundated agriculture land in a few areas in Kendrapara district. Water Resources engineer-in-chief Dillip Kumar Rout said the situation is under control as the rains have subsided. Water level of Baitarani river at both Anandapur and Akhuapada is below the danger mark.
“We are keeping a close watch on the situation across districts. Rains have also not caused flood threat in any other river system in the state,” he said.
On Hirakud, he said the dam’s water level is currently about 2-3 ft lower than the corresponding period last year. If it increases, some sluice gates may be opened on July 9, he said.
“The water level in Hirakud now stands at 606.12 feet against the full reservoir level of 630 feet. The water level of the reservoir was at 609 ft around this time last year. The present inflow to the reservoir is 1.80 lakh cusec which is expected to increase to 2.5 lakh cusec in a day or two,” he said.
Water resources officials said the water inflow of Mahanadi at Mundali near Cuttack was 3.26 lakh cusec, which will reach around 4.5 lakh cusec after release of excess water from Hirakud.
Between July 1 and 7, Odisha recorded 334.6 mm rainfall, around 21 per cent more compared to the normal precipitation of 276.6 mm. At least six districts of Bargarh, Jharsuguda,Sonepur, Sambalpur, Deogarh and Sundargarh received substantially excess rainfall, while Nuapada district also recorded excess amount of rain in the last 24 hours.
Bijepur in Bargarh recorded the highest rainfall at 109 mm. Barpali, in the same district, along with Balishankara in Sundargarh and Kolabira in Jharsuguda also recorded over 100 mm of rain. The average rainfall at the district level during the period was around 10.8 mm.
Met officials, however, said no significant amount of rainfall was recorded in the state on Tuesday. The depression over north Chhattisgarh and adjoining areas of southeast Uttar Pradesh and northeast Madhya Pradesh has now weakened to a well-marked low-pressure.
A seasonal trough at the mean sea level also runs from southwest Rajasthan to Bangladesh across the centre of the well marked low pressure area. Under its influence the parts of the state may get light to moderate rainfall and thundershower in the next three to four days.
Thundershower and lightning are very likely to occur in parts of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Angul and Dhenkanal during this period, the weather experts said.
