Ten downstream districts along the Mahanadi river in Odisha have been placed on high alert as the Hirakud Reservoir continued to release floodwaters through 22 sluice gates on Saturday, submerging low-lying areas across the region.
The severe inundation has impacted more than 8.34 lakh residents across 20 districts in the coastal state, wrecking public infrastructure and flooding extensive tracts of agricultural land.
In addition, overflowing waters from the Salangi, Brahmani, Baitarani, Jalaka, and Budhabalang rivers have damaged over 1,300 houses in northern Odisha, according to official reports.
Bhadrak has emerged as the hardest-hit district, followed closely by Jajpur, Balasore, and Mayurbhanj.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, who returned to the state late Friday night following a four-day visit to New Delhi, is undertaking an aerial inspection of the flood-ravaged areas alongside Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Suresh Pujari and senior officials.
Majhi’s travel to the national capital had drawn sharp criticism from opposition parties, who accused the ruling BJP of indifference toward the crisis, with Leader of Opposition Naveen Patnaik questioning whether political leaders were “feasting in Delhi amid the flood horrors.”
Pushing back against the allegations, Minister Pujari defended the trip, stating that the Chief Minister was discharging “Raj Dharma” by seeking a resolution to the long-standing Mahanadi water dispute with Chhattisgarh – an issue he noted the former Naveen Patnaik administration had failed to settle.
Odisha’s Special Relief Commissioner, Rajesh Prabhakar Patil, said that 10 districts situated along the lower catchment of the Mahanadi have been instructed to remain on extreme vigilance.
Administrative focus is heavily concentrated on Cuttack, Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, and Kendrapada, which are considered particularly susceptible to severe flooding due to their location within the Mahanadi delta region, an official stated.
The other districts under high alert along the Mahanadi basin were Angul, Boudh, Sambalpur, Subarnapur, and Nayagarh.
The water mark at the Hirakud Dam stood at 625.47 feet against its full reservoir capacity of 630 feet. “Since the inflow to the dam is about 4.15 lakh cusec, the reservoir level will certainly rise in a few hours. The average outflow was 3,89,603 cusecs,” the official said.
Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Pujari expressed optimism that conditions would soon improve, highlighting that the state has experienced no fresh rainfall over the last two days and that discharge volumes from the reservoir seem to have stabilized.
Authorities added that the water level at the Mundali barrage near Cuttack have also receded to around 7 lakh cusecs, down from the peak of 8.88 lakh cusecs recorded on Thursday night.
