Monsoon advances to more districts in Odisha

Southern districts receive heavy rain fall

The southwest monsoon that touched Odisha on Saturday, a day ahead of scheduled arrival, has further advanced into corn and paddy producing districts of Nawarangpur, Kalahandi, Nuapada and Rayagada causing heavy rains in some places. "The southwest monsoon has further advanced into some more parts of south Odisha today and covered Nawarangpur and Koraput as well as some parts of Nuapada, Kalahandi and Rayagada districts," according to a bulletin published by the Regional Meteorological Centre, Bhubaneswar this afternoon.

The monsoon will cover the entire state in next 2-3 days, it added.

The weather office has warned of heavy to very heavy rains in some parts of the state, especially in the southern and interior districts and said, this will continue till June 21. In last 24 hours, Dunguripali area in southern Odisha recorded highest 255 mm rainfall.

The June-September annual monsoon rains brought respite as the state was reeling under intense heat wave with temperature topping over 40 degree Celsius at many places.

While there are reports of 170 sunstroke deaths in the state, a latest release from the office of the Special Relief Commissioner said, 46 people have died due to severe heat conditions and the number could go up after verification of other reported cases.

Ganjam district topped with eight sunstroke deaths followed by five each at Bargarh and Bolangir districts. The monsoon rains are also favourable for the agriculture and food production as more than two thirds of 6.2 million ha farm land depend upon rainfalls for cultivation of summer crops.

For the current season, the state government has set food grain production target of 10.1 million tonne (mt), including 9.51 mt of cereals and half a million tonne pulses.

The cereals include 8.24 mt rice and 1.09 mt maize. Similarly, pulses production target comprises 200,000 tonne arhar, 150,000 tonne mung and 176,000 tonne urad.