El Nino: Officials Draft Contingency Plan To Mitigate Impact In Adilabad
The meeting, held at Utnoor, was chaired by K. Ilambarithi, the special officer overseeing El Niño preparedness in the region.
UTNOOR (ADILABAD): Public representatives and district officials on Monday reviewed an alternative action plan to mitigate the impact of the El Niño phenomenon on agriculture, drinking water, power supply and livestock in the erstwhile Adilabad district.
The meeting, held at Utnoor, was chaired by K. Ilambarithi, the special officer overseeing El Niño preparedness in the region. MLAs, district collectors and heads of department from Adilabad, Nirmal, Mancherial and Komaram Bheem Asifabad districts presented contingency plans.
Ilambarithi described El Niño as a natural calamity requiring coordinated action and directed all departments to implement contingency measures effectively. He emphasised the need to create farm ponds, promote rainwater harvesting and ensure preparedness to safeguard agriculture, drinking water supplies and livestock.
"The impact of El Niño will not only affect people but also livestock. We have to protect both through effective planning," he said, adding that the action plans prepared for the erstwhile Adilabad district would be submitted to the Chief Minister.
Mancherial MLA Premsagar Rao said paddy farms would be the worst affected due to inadequate water storage in the SRSP and Kadam irrigation projects. He urged officials to discourage further paddy transplantation and encourage farmers to take up alternative crops such as pulses to minimise losses.
Khanapur MLA Vedma Bojju alleged that some forest officials were preventing podu cultivators from sowing cotton in lands they had been cultivating for years. Such actions would adversely affect tribal farmers and warned that available water in irrigation projects would be sufficient for only two months, potentially leading to drinking water shortages.
District collectors Rajarshi Shah (Adilabad), Bhavesh Mishra (Nirmal) and MK Haritha (Komaram Bheem Asifabad), ITDA project officer Manda Makarand, additional collectors and senior officials from various departments attended the meeting. Mayors and municipal chairpersons from Mancherial, Kyathanpalli and Chennur were also present.
