Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Tuesday stated that Odisha escaped major damage from Severe Cyclonic Storm (SCS) Montha, which made landfall on the Andhra Pradesh coast around 7 pm, bringing significant relief to the state even as precautionary measures remained in force.
Briefing the media after visiting the control room of the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) at Rajiv Bhawan in Bhubaneswar to review the post-landfall situation on Tuesday, the CM said there were only reports of minor landslides and uprooting of trees in some areas.
“Barring some stray cases of landslide and tree felling, there has been no major incident even after three hours of landfall. The damages reported so far are much less than our anticipation,” Majhi told reporters, expressing gratitude to Lord Jagannath for sparing the state from a major calamity.
The chief minister spent over an hour at the SDMA control room, taking feedback from collectors of eight southern districts—Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Gajapati, Ganjam, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, and Kandhamal—where a ‘red alert’ had been issued in view of the cyclone.
Majhi said the state was keeping a close watch as Montha moved inland.
The chief minister pointed out that it did not rain as expected and added that the government was keeping a tight vigil on the situation.
“As per reports, it appears that Cyclone Montha has so far not had any major impact in the eight districts that were earlier feared to be affected during its landfall. Except for some areas like Gajapati and Ganjam, which received heavy rainfall of around 115 millimetres today, no other part of the state has reported heavy rain or strong winds. Malkangiri district, which is close to the cyclone’s landfall area in Andhra Pradesh, also did not receive heavy rain,” Majhi said.
He further added that the cyclone is likely to move through Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur and other districts of Odisha on Wednesday, and all departments of the state government are fully alert and are working in close coordination to manage the impact of the cyclone, whether the impact is minor or severe.
CM Mjahi also informed that the process of landfall of the severe cyclonic storm Montha on the Andhra coast between Machilipatnam and Kalingapatnam, around Kakinada, is still on.
However, Malkangiri district, which was earlier expected to suffer the most, has yet to experience any major impact of the severe cyclonic storm.
The chief minister said 17,817 people had been evacuated to more than 2,000 cyclone shelters against the initial target of 32,000.
“The major relief is that there has been no report of any casualty so far,” he said.
A total of 2,198 pregnant women were shifted to hospitals and another 651 identified for possible transfer if required, he added.
Majhi said 153 rescue teams comprising personnel from NDRF, ODRAF and Fire Services would remain stationed in vulnerable districts until the system completely moved out of the state.
“Whatever the impact may be, the government will remain on alert and coordinate with all stakeholders to manage the situation,” he said.
CM Majhi also shared that Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had spoken to him about the cyclone situation. “I told him that the impact of the cyclone was far less than expected. He also said the damages in Andhra Pradesh were minimal. Hence, the Railways is considering restoration of train services that were earlier cancelled,” Majhi said.
He said Odisha is a natural calamity prone state and therefore its experience in handling such situations helped to mitigate the disaster. “Odisha’s disaster management has earned praise across the globe,” the chief minister said.
The #landfall #process continues and the landfall process will continue for next #2hours.
It is likely to move northwestwards and cross Andhra Pradesh & Yanam coast between Machilipatnam and Kalingapatnam, to the south of Kakinada during next 2 hours as a #Severe #CyclonicStorm… pic.twitter.com/YNS9ypzekS
— India Meteorological Department (@Indiametdept) October 28, 2025
The India Meteorological Department (IMD), in its latest bulletin at 10.30 PM said Montha’s ongoing landfall process will continue for next 2-3 hours. “The system is currently being monitored continuously by Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) at Machilipatnam and Visakhapatnam in addition to coastal observatories, automatic weather stations (AWSs), ships & buoys and satellites,” the IMD said.
