Swarms of ants infested every nook and corner of the village, including houses, roads, fields and trees, throwing the normal lives out of gear. Many have been beaten by these ants, causing swelling and irritation on the skin.
Villagers on Monday blocked the official convoy of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who was on a visit to coastal areas of cyclone-hit Odisha to oversee relief work.
Nine persons have lost their lives in the recent floods in five districts of West Bengal, state disaster management department sources said on Thursday.
IMD director general Mrutunjay Mohapatra said that cyclone Asani has already achieved maximum stage of intensification and is gradually getting weakened.
As the sky turns overcast and torrential rains lash Odisha's Erasama block, Pravati Maity of Jagatsinghpur district is haunted by the painful memories of the 1999 killer cyclone.
Heavy rains in the aftermath of Cyclone Phailin triggered floods in Odisha on Monday with over 2.5 lakh people being marooned in Balasore -- one of the two worst-hit districts along with Mayurbanj -- and several rivers were in spate.
People of Berhampur in south Odisha are crossing over to Andhra Pradesh in search of ATMs to withdraw money as almost all such facilities in this silk city are lying defunct since Cyclone Phailin hit the state.
Very heavy rains are expected over north Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, east Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Sikkim in the next 48 hours, with cyclonic storm Phailin now closer to the Chattisgarh-Odisha border, the National Disaster Management Authority has said.
Though flood situation in Odisha's five northen districts triggered by Cyclone Phailin and resultant rains slightly improved on Wednesday, people of 647 villages continued to be marooned, while the death toll in the twin calamities stood at 28.
Relief and restoration work was stepped up on Tuesday in areas ravaged by twin calamity of Cyclone Phailin and resultant floods in Odisha, which affected over 1.2 crore people in more than 16,000 villages and claimed 26 lives. Of the 26, five people died in floods.
Displaced by Cyclone 'Phailin', villagers struggling to cope with the natural calamity are irked over the delay in supply of relief material and complain that children and elders have been going hungry for the last two days.
The Indian Meteorological Department on Sunday stood vindicated over its forecast that Phailin will not be a 'super cyclone' as predicted by some international agencies and said its assessment was "more or less" accurate.
So how are tropical cyclones formed? How destructive can they be? How are their names chosen? Find out the answers to these and other questions in our cyclone FAQ.
Here is a list of previous cyclones that have struck the country.
Accepting Odisha's proposal of constructing an additional 162 cyclone shelter houses as they helped in providing safe stay for people after evacuation from the coast, WB team agreed to provide assistance of $55 million for the purpose, the sources said.
With the focus now shifting from disaster mitigation of cyclone to flood relief, the defence ministry on Monday said it has pressed four helicopters into service to evacuate the marooned local population as well as to drop relief materials to Phailin hit areas.
Besides strengthening the IMD's infrastructure, Mohapatra said his priority will be to improve the dissemination of weather-related information -- from nowcasts to weather forecasts -- focus on sector-related forecast and give impact-based prediction in all areas.
Carrying their baggage, thousands of people are leaving the port town of Paradip to escape the wrath of the severe cyclonic storm 'Phailin' which is expected to make landfall in Odisha in less than 24 hours.
About 2.14 million people were displaced in India last year due to natural disasters, according to a United Nations-backed report which said the country was third after the Philippines and China to record the highest levels of displacement in 2013.
The successful effort to combat Cyclone Phailin threatens to put disaster mitigation, and a fundamental overhaul of how disaster management in India is structured, on the back-burner, says Anand Sarkar.
The five-day long electricity crisis in the Seema-Andhra region would come to an end, after the employee's union agreed to call off their strike on Thursday.
At least 34 people were killed during Cyclone Fani, which barrelled through coastal Odisha on Friday last, causing widespread destruction and leaving hundreds grappling with water shortage and power cut.
This keeps the American aircraft giant on track to deliver five of the large, versatile military transport aircraft to the IAF this year, and five more in 2014.
Bhubaneswar airport too bracing itself for emergency and contingency plans have been drawn up.
Berhampur, the biggest city in southern Odisha, on Monday looked like a war zone as Cyclone Phailin left behind a trail of destruction. The cyclone accompanied by heavy rain hit Gopalpur, about 15 km from Behrampur, and battered the city and its nearby areas.
The RBI Governor also reiterated his reservation against repeated loan waivers by various state governments, saying the move distorts credit pricing, thereby also disrupting the credit market.
At least 10 persons, including four cops, were injured when police resorted to lathicharge on Tuesday to chase away a mob protesting alleged diversion of kerosene meant for relief at Chikiti in Odisha's cyclone-hit Ganjam district.
He raised the issue while mocking at the excavation being conducted by the Archaeological Survey of India in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh after a saint said he had dreamt about 1000 tonnes of gold being underneath at a place there.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the Indian Air Force choppers and aircraft and the two navy ships are placed in close proximity to the eastern coastline and would be deployed for rescue and relief operations.
The 1986 batch Odisha cadre IPS officer has been described as a competent officer and is known for his acumen in handling disasters.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said rehabilitation is a big challenge for the state government as property valued at several crore of rupees was lost in the cyclone.
Orissa learnt its lessons from previous cyclones, particularly the 1999 super cyclone, whereas Uttarakhand has failed to do so from any of the previous natural calamities that hit the state, says Dinesh C Sharma.
An unspecified number of people were evacuated from coastal areas of Odisha where Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore were likely to experience heavy rainfall accompanied by high-velocity winds, particularly on May 19 and 20, IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said.
In his address at a conference of state secretaries, Rajan stressed the need to strengthen state-level coordination committees by ensuring participation, conducting meetings more frequently and sharing quality information among all stakeholders, including state government agencies.
he feels they are prone to misuse by borrowers, including farmers, and suggested a rate ceiling for loans by micro finance lenders.
India's manufacturing sector activity contracted for the third straight month in October amid falling levels of production and new orders, as the business climate within the country remained tough, an HSBC survey said on Friday.
Hinting that the ruling Biju Janata Dal might be a part of the proposed Third Front in the 2014 general elections, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday 1dubbed the Congress "corrupt" and the Bharatiya Janata Party "communal".
People in coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday as the third cyclonic storm in over a month, which was expected to cause extensive damage, weakened before it hit the state.
The Odisha government on Friday said it would prepare a memorandum to seek central assistance in the next two days for relief and restoration works in the cyclone and flood affected districts, even as the death toll in the twin calamities mounted to 44.
'Evacuation' has been key to disaster management in Odisha. The aim is to achieve zero casualty.
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