Crops in over 10,000 hectares pest-infested, 3 districts drought-hit: SRC

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government today declared that an area of 10456.64 hectares in as many as 1567 villages in two districts has been infested by pests, Bolangir being the worst-affected. This apart, the State government also declared Kalahandi, Nuapada and Sambalpur districts drought-hit.

Based on the field verification reports of the district collectors, the SRC mentioned in a tweet, "The State Govt has declared an area of 10456.64 hectares in 1567 villages under 319 GPs of 15 Blocks and 15 wards of 4 ULBs in 2 districts- Bolangir and Deogarh, as affected by pest attack having sustained crop loss of 33 percent and above."

A report of the SRC revealed that 9008 hectares and 154.64 hectares of the sown area suffered damages between 33 per cent and 50 percent to crops in Bolangir and Deogarh districts respectively, while 1294 hectares of the sown area in Bolangir witnessed damage more than 50 per cent to crops.

On Saturday, the State government declared an additional 67576.94 hectares in 1729 villages under 360 gram panchayats of 21 blocks and 45 wards of 6 ULBs in three districts of Kalahandi, Nuapada and Sambalpur as drought hit on the basis of field verification report received from the Collectors.