A fresh cyclone-related weather threat has put Ganjam and Gajapati districts on alert, with the India Meteorological Department issuing yellow and orange warnings for heavy to very heavy rainfall between November 18 and 20. The warning has raised fears of further crop losses in Ganjam, where much of the standing paddy is yet to be harvested after recent flooding and cyclone-related rain.
The district administration has prepared more than 1,000 temporary shelter centres in Ganjam, according to the report. Officials said people living in landslide-prone and hilly areas would be moved to safer locations if conditions deteriorate. Government employees have also had their leave cancelled and been instructed to remain at their workplaces until further orders.
The immediate concern for farmers is the paddy crop, which is at the harvesting stage. Paddy was cultivated on about 2.18 lakh hectares in Ganjam this year, but only 5% to 7% of the crop had been cut by the time of the report, Chief District Agriculture Officer Manoranjan Roul said.
Roul said the agriculture department had asked farmers who own combined harvesting machines to cut and thresh the crop and move it to safer places. However, access to such machines is limited. Farmers also said the saturated ground was making harvesting difficult. “We cannot cut the crop now as the land is still muddy,” farmer Niranjan Mohanty of Baiganabadi was quoted as saying.
The threat comes after severe cyclone Arnab caused rain and flooding that damaged more than 83,400 hectares of standing paddy in Ganjam, according to the report. The prospect of another spell of heavy rain has left farmers concerned that crops still standing in the fields could be damaged before they can be collected and stored.
Water management authorities are preparing for the possibility of renewed rainfall. Engineers from the water resources department have issued notices to release water from reservoirs if fresh storms occur. An engineer said the reservoirs and dams were full after extreme rainfall in the last week of October under the influence of Arnab, and that water could be released in advance to reduce the risk of an untoward incident.
The district administration has separately warned fishermen not to venture into the sea and asked those already at sea to return to their villages before Monday. Officials said sea conditions could become rough to very rough during the warning period.
The alerts place several parts of the district’s response system under pressure at the same time: shelters must be ready for vulnerable residents, reservoirs require monitoring, coastal movement needs to be restricted and farmers need to protect a crop that has already suffered extensive damage. The district administration’s next steps will depend on the rainfall and sea conditions forecast for November 18 to 20.
