KENDRAPADA: Panic gripped the seaside villages of Mahakalapada block in Kendrapada district when high tidal waves lashed their shores and breached the saline embankments on Sunday night causing extensive damage to agricultural fields. Panikhia village under Nanjura gram panchayat was the worst-affected.
“A 40-feet long weak saline embankment caved in owing to high tide. As a result, the tidal waves inundated more than around 4,000 acres of land. Many farmers had already sown paddy seeds and transplanted the saplings last month after ploughing their agriculture land. But their hopes were dashed after the saline water ingress into their fields,” Ashok Barik of Panikhia village said.
The paddy fields spread across Nanjura, Santalipada, Panikhia and other villages were badly affected, Pabitra Mandal of Nanjura village, said.
“Seawater often enters the seaside villages owing to the non-repair of the saline embankments and sub-standard sluice gates installed by the authorities. Many prawn farm owners have been illegally damaging the saline embankments to allow the flow of saline water into their farms in the seaside villages to breed shrimps, but the authorities are not taking any action against them,” Umesh Chandra Singh, a farmers’ leader and the president of the district unit of Krusak Sabha, said.
He alleged that many government officials and politicians are hand-in-glove with the prawn mafias for which the authorities are shielding them. Every year the farmers face crop loss due to flood, he said.
