Odisha asks collectors to save crop from unseasonal rain

The Odisha government on Thursday asked district collectors to take steps to protect paddy from unseasonal rain.

The government diktat came following a forecast by the IMD that rain and thundershowers are likely to occur over some places in the state, on December 16 and 17, due to depression formed over southeast of Bay of Bengal.

"Necessary measures should be taken to protect the paddy in mandis, if any against rain," Joint Relief Commissioner Pravat Ranjan Mohapatra said in a letter to the district collectors.

Mohapatra in the letter said the farmers may be advised to take necessary steps to protect their paddy and other crops from the possible rain.

Quoting a release of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the special relief commissioner's (SRC) office said that the well-marked low pressure area formed over the southeast Bay of Bengal and adjoining equatorial Indian Ocean on Wednesday has concentrated into a depression on Thursday morning and lay centred about 830 km east-southeast of Trincomalee (Sri Lanka), 1,150 km southeast of Chennai and 1,330 km south-southeast of Machhilipatnam.

"It is very likely to intensify further into a deep depression in the next 12 hours and subsequently into a cyclonic storm during the next 24 hours, and very likely to move in the northwest direction towards Andhra Pradesh and adjoining north Tamil Nadu coasts during the next 72 hours," the IMD said in its release.

The IMD also forecast that under the influence of the depression most parts of south Odisha will receive moderate rainfall.

Besides, strong wind will blow across the south coastal areas during that period, the IMD release said.

Apart from south Odisha, there will be light to moderate rainfall in several places in the state on December 16 and 17, the release added.