Officials Draft Contingency Plan To Mitigate Impact In Adilabad

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, energy supply and livestock in the erstwhile Adilabad district.

The meeting held in Utnoor was chaired by special officer K. Ilambarithi, who supervised El Niño preparations in the region. MLAs, district collectors and department heads from Adilabad, Nirmal, Mancherial and Komaram Bheem Asifabad districts presented contingency plans.

Ilambarithi described El Niño as a natural disaster requiring coordinated action and instructed all departments to effectively implement emergency measures. He emphasized the need to create farm ponds, promote rainwater harvesting and ensure preparedness to protect agriculture, drinking water resources and livestock.

“The impact of El Niño will affect not only humans but also livestock. We must protect both with effective planning.” He added that the action plans prepared for the old Adilabad region will be presented to the Prime Minister.

Mancherial MLA Premsagar Rao said paddy fields will be worst affected due to inadequate water storage in SRSP and Kadam irrigation projects. He urged authorities to discourage further paddy cultivation and encourage farmers to take alternative crops such as pulses to minimize losses.

Khanapur MLA Vedma Bojju alleged that some forest officials are preventing podu cultivators from planting cotton on land they have been cultivating for years. He warned that such actions would negatively impact tribal farmers and the available water from irrigation projects would be sufficient for only two months, potentially leading to drinking water shortage.

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 mayors from Mancherial, Kyathanpalli and Chennur were also present.