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Odisha has started implementing a vibrant tourism policy with the intention of making the State a one-stop destination to experience history, culture and natural beauty. Text By PRAFULLA DAS and photographs by BISWARANJAN ROUT

WITH a steady increase in tourist footfall in Odisha over the last decade, the government has started implementing a new policy aimed at making tourism an important part of economic activities, with the focus on development of ecotourism destinations. The idea is to get more and more tourists to mingle with nature.

The government has already begun the process of developing as many as 30 ecotourism destinations under a self-sustaining mode, all situated in various wildlife divisions that come under the Forest and Environment Department. An action plan has been approved by the Eco-Tourism Board.

The ecotourism spots are Mangalajodi and Berhampura in Chilika Wildlife Division; Barakhandia and Dhodrokusum in Hirakud Division; Kumari and Jamuani in Baripada Division; Deras and Godibari in Chandaka Division; Bichitrapur and Rissia in Balasore Division; Bedmul in Mahanadi Division; Tarava and Chhotkei in Satkosia Division; Daringibadi and Belghar in Baliguda Division; Nuanai in Puri Division; Anjar and Kanjipani in Keonjhar Division; Dangmal in Rajnagar Division; Barbara in Khordha Division; Ansupa in Athgarh Division; Mandasaru in Phulbani Division; Ramatirtha and Chahala in Similipal Division; Gudugudia in Karanjia Division; Saluapali and Lasing in Ghumusar North Division; Jacum in Kalahandi South Division; and Bhimdungri in Balangir Division.

The Forest Department has been advised by the Board to create more employment opportunities for local youths through these projects so that they can provide various services to tourists. It has also been decided to keep these spots open throughout the year. The government has advised the department to give these destinations wide publicity through tour operators, tour websites and hoteliers in national and international forums.

In order to make it work, the government has started preparing a master plan for the comprehensive development of these eco-spots. Bookings can be made online through the website www.ecotourodisha.com. This portal has been integrated with a billing and payment gateway, along with an SMS and email information system. Apart from ecotourism, the new tourism policy, formulated in 2016, aims to promote other types of tourism such as beach tourism, heritage tourism, religious tourism, knowledge tourism, medical tourism, travel tourism, caravan tourism, wellness tourism, cruise tourism, sand art tourism and adventure tourism. An outlay of Rs.293 crore has been set aside in the State budget for 2017-18 for the overall development of the tourism sector.

With a view to attracting foreign tourists, the government has signed a memorandum of understanding with Air Asia to launch direct flights between Bhubaneswar and Kuala Lumpur. A policy to promote tour packages to South-East Asia in collaboration with Air Asia will also be prepared.

New initiatives such as the Jagannath trail, coastal treks, coastal cruises, cycle tours, food festivals and weekend getaways are being organised by the Odisha Tourism Development Corporation.

Hoping that the new policy will boost Odisha’s tourism sector, the government has started branding Odisha Tourism at strategic places such as airports, metro stations and international convention centres.

In fact, nature tourism destinations in Odisha have been attracting tourists from far-off places for years. The endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles’ annual visit to the State’s coast for mass nesting in January and February every year is one such popular attraction.

Podampeta village, situated 142 kilometres from Bhubaneswar and a part of the Rushikulya rookery in Ganjam district, off National Highway 16, is a particularly popular site. Lakhs of sea turtles come to lay eggs on the beach near the village every year. Hundreds of tourists throng the place to witness thousands of tiny Olive Ridley hatchlings emerging from the sand pits on the beach and crawling into the Bay of Bengal in early April.

Between Bhubaneswar and the Rushikulya rookery is Mangalajodi, a perfect ecotourism destination where birds can be seen throughout the year. The village is located on the northern banks of the Chilika lake, the largest brackish water lake in Asia and the largest wintering ground for migratory birds in India.

In Mangalajodi, the villagers themselves are involved in protecting the birds throughout the year and will take visitors into the wetland by wooden boats for birdwatching.

Many tourists also visit Satapada, located on the south-eastern part of the Chilika lagoon and home to the Irrawaddy dolphins. A visit to Satapada can be clubbed with a sojourn in Puri town, where the Jagannath temple is located, and a trip to the Sun Temple in Konark. Built in the middle of the 13th century, the Sun Temple is also known as the Black Pagoda

The golden triangle

Bhubaneswar, Puri and Konark are popularly known as the golden triangle. After a 60-km drive from Bhubaneswar, one reaches the serene beaches of Puri.

Apart from offering prayers at the Jagannath temple, tourists can enjoy a stroll on the tranquil beaches nearby. They can also get to see sand sculptures carved on the beach by many sand artists. Sudarsan Pattnaik, Manas Sahoo, Ranjan Ganguly and Sudam Pradhan are some well-known sand artists. Sometimes students of the sand art institute that Pattnaik runs in the town also create sand sculptures on the beach. Pattnaik has represented Odisha and the country in many sand art championships.

Since sand art at Puri’s beach has started drawing international attention after Pattnaik became famous and was presented the Padma Shri award, the government has decided to establish a sand art museum there as part of the tourism infrastructure.

President Pranab Mukherjee visited the Puri beach a few years ago to see Pattnaik’s sand sculpture. The sand artist plays a key role in the Odisha government’s annual International Sand Art Festival held in Konark.

About 50 sand artists from different parts of the country and abroad attend the sand art festival, which coincides with the Konark Festival, a five-day festival of the classical dances of India, starting December 1 every year. The Konark Festival is held against the backdrop of the Sun Temple.

Sand art’s popularity has also been growing across Odisha in recent years. Subal Maharana and many other sand artists who are not from Puri also create sand sculptures on various occasions, issues, and themes from time to time.

Ideally located

Odisha, dubbed as the soul of “Incredible India” by the Tourism Department, is cradled between the Bay of Bengal and the forested hills of the Eastern Ghats. The State boasts of a 33 per cent forest cover, two national parks, 19 wildlife sanctuaries, three tiger reserves and many spectacular waterfalls, apart from a number of rivers and reservoirs. Hundreds of ancient temples and Buddhist sites add to Odisha’s beauty and tourism potential.

The wide variety of mangroves and the saltwater crocodiles of the Bhitarkanika National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary are popular destinations. The park is also home to the white crocodile, the Indian python, the wild pig, the rhesus monkey, the chital, the cobra, the water monitor lizard and the black ibis, the darter and many migratory birds in winter. Oliver Ridley sea turtles also nest at Gahirmatha in Kedrapara district and other nearby beaches.

The Similipal National Park and Tiger Reserve in north Odisha is yet another hotspot for nature lovers. Known all over the world as a major biosphere reserve, Similipal is located in Mayurbhanj district. It is home to the royal Bengal tiger and the elephant. It has several waterfalls such as Joranda and Barehipani.

Niyamgiri Hills, about 450 km from Bhubaneswar, is another major eco- and ethnic-tourism attraction. Spread across Kalahandi and Rayagada districts, Niyamgiri is home to about 10,000 Dongria Kondh tribal people. They organise the Niyam Raja Festival on the last Sunday of February every year to worship the hill, their source of livelihood. The two-day festival atop the bauxite-rich hills is a fantastic experience.

To promote Odisha as a one-stop destination to experience history, culture, society and natural beauty, the authorities have decided to adopt a strong multi-modal approach and synergise the activities of the different departments and stakeholders. The government is also planning to prepare a water sports policy to give ecotourism a boost.

The government needs to remain committed and people need to be made aware of the State’s tourism potential and the need to welcome guests and treat them well. As road, railway and air connectivity improves, for Odisha tourism, the sky is the limit.

Leaders pay tributes to Pyarimohan Mohapatra

Prafulla Das

BHUBANESWAR MARCH 21, 2017 00:00 IST

UPDATED: MARCH 21, 2017 04:10 IST

He proved his mettle as a civil servant and in politics: CM

Leaders cutting across party lines on Monday paid tributes to former Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra who passed away at a Mumbai hospital on Sunday night.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Ministers Jual Oram, Suresh Prabhu and Dharmendra Pradhan, many Ministers of the State and people from different walks of life paid their last respects to the departed leader at the airport as well as his house in the city.

As the mortal remains of Mohapatra arrived here, Mr. Patnaik reached the Biju Patnaik International Airport, and paid floral tributes and placed a wreath on the body.

The late leader had created a niche for himself in Odisha politics through his organisational skills and political acumen, said Mr. Patnaik.

“I am distressed at the passing away of former MP Pyarimohan Mohapatra. He had a distinguished career as a civil servant and is known for his hard work and calibre. Later, he came to politics and became an MP. In politics too he has proved his mettle,” said Mr. Patnaik in a message.

Chanakya of Odisha

Mahapatra, who transformed the BJD into a strong regional party, was president of the Odisha Jana Morcha, the party he founded in 2013 in the aftermath of his expulsion from the BJD.

He was dubbed as the Chanakya of Odisha politics for his decade-long nursing of the party.

It is a different matter that Mr. Patnaik had dubbed Mohapatra a “traitor” while announcing the latter’s suspension from the BJD in June 2012 for making a failed coup against his government on May 29 that year when Mr. Patnaik was in the UK.

BJP makes inroads into BJD strongholds in Odisha

Saffron party rides on anti-incumbency against BJD and infighting in Congress

The Biju Janata Dal that made the BJP its coalition partner 17 years ago has now found the saffron party emerging as its main challenger by overtaking the Congress in the just-concluded panchayat elections in the State.

The BJP has done unexpectedly well, taking full advantage of two major factors – anti-incumbency against the ruling BJD and infighting in the Congress, which is still the main opposition in the State Assembly.

Congress cornered

The BJP, which was in power in Odisha as part of the BJD-BJP coalition from 2000 to 2009, has not only cornered the Congress votes to win more Zilla Parishad seats but has also been able to erode the BJD’s vote base in many pockets.

Although the BJD has remained the single largest party by winning 473 of the 846 Zilla Parishad seats, the BJP has improved its tally to 297 and the Congress has finished a distant third with 60 seats. The BJD had won 651 Zilla Parishad seats, while the Congress had got 128 and the BJP just 36 in the 2012 panchayat polls.

The eight districts where the BJP has secured majority to form Zilla Parishads or district councils are located in interior Odisha or adjoining neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

The districts are Malkangiri, Kalahandi, Balangir, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Subarnapur and Mayurbhanj where the BJD had secured majority in 2012.

The BJD had won the majority of seats in as many as 28 of the total 30 districts in the State in 2012. The party has secured clear majority in 16 districts in this election.

The Congress has bagged the majority of Zilla Parishad seats in just one district – Jharsuguda, where it had won the majority the last time too. The five districts where no party has secured a clear majority are Gajapati, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Sundargarh and Kandhamal. The three parties are now trying their best to form a Parishad by managing support from each other or independents.

BJP Entry in Jajpur

An analysis of the results makes it clear that the BJP has won the majority of Zilla Parishad seats in areas which it represented in the Lok Sabha and State Assembly from 2000 to 2009.

The difficult areas in the coastal region where the BJP has made major inroads into the BJD strongholds in this election are Kendrapara district, where it won 10 seats out of the 32 with the BJD winning 22, and Khurda district where it has won 10 of the 30 seats with the BJD winning 20 seats. The party also made it presence felt for the first time in Jajpur and Jagatsinghpur in the coastal belt.

Besides, the BJP has increased its tally in Dhenkanal and Angul districts from two seats each in the last panchayat poll to 12 seats each in this elections. The party had presence in these two districts during its alliance with the BJD.

In the post-poll scenario, while a buoyed BJP is trying to maintain momentum with its eyes set on the civic body polls next year and general elections in 2019 and the Congress is grappling with the voices of dissent over the party's poor performance, the BJD has started the process of course correction.

‘Will work harder’

Reacting to the poll outcome in which his party has returned as the largest party with 56% seats, Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik has said that they will review their performance very seriously and will work harder to get reconnected to the people.

Odisha villagers take on timber smugglers

Prafulla Das

 FEBRUARY 18, 2017 00:00 IST

UPDATED: FEBRUARY 18, 2017 04:14 IST

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Man on a mission:Biswanath Barad in the Koska village forest.Photo: Biswaranjan RoutBiswaranjan Rout  

A small band of villagers in the State lead by example to preserve forests for the future from destruction by timber mafia

Biswanath Barad, a farmer from this non-descript village in Odisha’s Nayagarh district, launched his crusade using community power, much before one of India’s famous green laws, the Forest (Conservation) Act, was enacted in 1980.

The power of many has virtually ring-fenced the State’s forests such as Ghantulei hills, led by pioneers like Biswanath and 20 others who were teenagers when they saw the alarming decline in wood and forest produce that they could get in 1970.

A struggle for many

It has been a struggle for many, with attacks on community forest patrols by timber smugglers, and arrests by police for protesting.

The violence claimed the life of Chandramani Nayak, who was killed by timber smugglers at Machhipada while on a patrol on December 31, 2012. Yet, the communities continue unfazed, preserving the forest for future generations, the members say.

Soon after the villagers first launched their forest guard model, similar efforts began in most parts of Nayagarh and other districts having forest cover. Of 1,700 villages in the district, people in about 1,200 villages are now part of community initiatives. About 900 villages have joined the Nayagarh Forest Protection Federation covering seven out of eight Blocks.

Biswanath and his people have saved the forest atop Ghantulei and enabled the regeneration of forest over 1,000 acres, a carpet of sal trees surrounding the hill and meeting their daily needs.

The Prakruti Mitra (friend of forests) award of the Odisha government was bestowed on him.

Researchers from different parts of the country and abroad now visit Nayagarh to study a forest protection and conflict resolution model that is run by the community.

Ironically, the administration was itself the biggest hurdle when they got to work. The State government’s Soil Conservation Department came to fell the sal trees and plant casuarina seedlings in 1984. The resulting protest led to nine villagers being booked in a case.

They were finally discharged by the court, strengthening their resolve to conserve the forest that feeds them. With villagers asserting their rights, the authorities were left with no choice but to consult them before taking up development projects.

The communities have evolved a protection protocol for the job. Voluntary patrolling through Thenga Palli (stick rotation) is done throughout the year. One person each from two families set out on the patrol every morning wielding the wooden stick which had been placed at their door the previous evening. If an intruder is spotted, fellow villagers are alerted immediately for reinforcements. It is a passing-the-baton routine, as the sticks are given to immediate neighbours everyday.

Rules for protection

The village forest protection council has set rules that are obeyed by all families. It is obligatory for every household to participate in Thenga Palli. If a household cannot participate on a given day, it must engage a labourer or exchange duty with a fellow neighbour.

Living trees are sacred for the residents and no one is allowed to cut any. There is, however, no restriction on collection of dry twigs, fruits, seeds and flowers to meet family requirements.

Biswanath’s father encouraged him to launch the system and his elder son, along with other youth, is now part of the patrol, he says.

The elders of neighbouring Kantabania village, where the residents have protected the Matigadia hills from timber smugglers, have similar stories to tell.

Growing awareness

Sarat Nayak, president of NFPF, puts the successes down to growing awareness among the villagers across the district.

Forest conservation for the farmers, Dalits and tribal people of Nayagarh goes beyond saving trees. Village ponds, hills streams and agriculture are also in focus in the foothills.

The Nayagarh story is repeated in Boudh, Kandhamal, Koraput, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Sundargarh, Angul, Dhenkanal, Mayurbhanj, Subarnapur, Balangir and Malkangiri. Odisha Jungle Manch, an umbrella organisation of the people’s movement is represented in 25 of the 30 districts of the State.

Prafulla Das

Pick up hockey sticks, not guns, says Dilip Tirkey

• PRAFULLA DAS

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Dilip Tirkey

Tournament to be held in regions under Maoist influence

Member of Parliament Dilip Tirkey, a former captain of the Indian hockey team, is a busy man. He is working overtime to bring to reality his dream of creating a village hockey championship with teams from several districts in Odisha and neighbouring States of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

“The event aims to promote hockey at the village level with a view to keep the tribal youths away from Maoist influence in the region,” said Mr. Tirkey, who hails from Sundargarh district. The region where the matches would be played over a period of four months from December to March is part of the belt with a strong Maoist presence.

“The region should develop as a cradle of hockey instead of a nursery for Maoists. The youth of the region should pick up hockey sticks instead of guns,” said Mr. Tirkey.

The proposed rural hockey championship is scheduled to be inaugurated in Rourkela in Odisha’s Sundargarh district on December 10. A total of 25,000 young hockey players representing over 1,500 teams from the region are expected to participate in this unique event called the Biju Patnaik Rural Hockey Championship.

Aiming for a record

Mr. Tirkey, who believes it will be the largest field hockey tournament in the world, is seeking an endorsement from the Guinness World Records team.

After the inaugural ceremony, the teams would disperse to play matches in their respective regions as per a timetable being prepared for the championship.

There is no age bar for participants. Mr. Tirkey said he hoped to attract youngsters who can dream big and achieve what they want.

Picture of neglect

PRAFULLA DAS

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Death of children from malnutrition and Japanese encephalitis in the backward Malkangiri district puts the Odisha government in the dock. By PRAFULLA DAS in Malkangiri

The death of 19 Juang tribal children from acute malnutrition in inaccessible hamlets in the Nagada hills in Jajpur district over a period of three months early this year and that of over 60 undernourished children because of acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) caused by the Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus in the tribal-dominated Malkangiri district in less than two months have exposed the Odisha government’s inefficiency in tackling hunger and malnutrition across the State. The toll is likely to increase as many undernourished children are affected by fever.

Malkangiri, a part of the backward KBK (Koraput-Balangir-Kalahandi) region of Odisha, with 1,045 villages in seven blocks, is covered under the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP), which lays emphasis on the integrated development of tribal areas. It ranks among the few districts with the lowest per capita income in Odisha; its share to the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is one of the lowest. Of the 108 gram panchayats in Malkangiri, only 16 have bank branches, according to the latest Odisha Gazetteers. The 1997 below poverty line (BPL) survey says that 72.69 per cent of the families in the district, most of them belonging to the Scheduled Tribes, fall below the poverty line. This calls for immediate action to build rural infrastructure, conserve natural resources, implement programmes for income generation on a sustainable basis and to restructure the social security system. Though the State government claims to be making a concerted effort to implement a series of poverty alleviation programmes in order to reduce the dimension, deprivation and inequities in poverty, severe poverty persists in Malkangiri and other such inaccessible areas where tribal communities continue to depend upon subsistence agriculture, including shifting cultivation.

The Naveen Patnaik government’s callousness towards the children of Malkangiri is evident from the fact that it did not take up any vaccination drive to prevent the recurrence of JE despite the disease claiming the lives of 38 children in 2012 and 11 children in 2014 in the district. A few deaths because of JE were reported in 2011 and 2013 as well. But no sincere effort was made to procure vaccines from the Central government or make alternative arrangements.

Malkangiri, which has been a stronghold of Maoists for long, is 600 kilometres from the State capital. No government employee, unless belonging to the district, is willing to serve in the district; most of them consider a posting in the faraway district as a punishment.

Although Maoist activity in the district has decreased in recent years, lack of proper roads and communication, even to the district headquarters of Malkangiri town, is a big deterrent to progress. The less said the better about roads, schools, hospitals and telecommunication services in the interior areas.

Together, the government hospitals in the district have only 23 doctors as against a sanctioned strength of 115. This when the death toll from JE had crossed 40 by the first week of October.

The district headquarters hospital in Malkangiri town has only 13 doctors on duty, including two dentists, when the sanctioned strength is 44. Until the end of September, the district had only one paediatrician.

Even the performance of 108 and 102 (emergency telephone) ambulance services in the district was found to be inefficient. Quite often, the District Collector receives complaints about the ambulance not reaching the intended beneficiaries in time for them to reach the nearest health centres. Delayed services have resulted in the death of sick children, according to even official reports.

After getting off on the wrong foot, the State government made postings of more doctors to cope with the JE outbreak. But, according to official records, by then the number of deaths from the vector-borne disease had risen to 50. As many as 99 villages spread over six of the seven blocks in the district have been affected by the disease.

Unofficial estimates put the number of JE deaths at over 100 as many people in remote pockets have not been able to reach hospitals, and some died after they were discharged from hospitals.

Three-year-old Devaki Madhi of Palkonda was discharged from hospital in September, four days after her admission. She died a few days later. The list of victims released by the Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) of Malkangiri does not have her name.

Sama Madkami of Katanpali village under Padia block lost three of his four children to JE between 2012 and 2014. When his fourth kid showed symptoms of the killer disease, he refused to admit his ward in any government hospital in Odisha and disappeared from the village. Opposition political parties rejected the government statistics on JE deaths. State Congress president Prasad Harichandan, who visited many affected villages, said that JE had claimed some 200 lives. He blamed it on the negligence of the government.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Bhrigu Baxipatra said that field reports had suggested more than 150 child deaths. Questioning the preparedness for tackling a preventable crisis, he said the government had not distributed medicated mosquito nets in Malkangiri in time. Only after the outbreak occurred did the then CDMO, Udaya Shankar Mishra, hurriedly buy 11,000 general mosquito nets locally.

Studies on JE prevalence

The deadly JE virus, which originates from pigs, spreads to humans, mostly children, through culex mosquitoes that live near a pigsty. JE is a public health problem in the South East Asian region and India. Its outbreak was reported for the first time in Odisha from Rourkela city in Sundargarh district in 1989.

According to a study of the prevalence of JE in Odisha by the Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) of the Indian Council of Medical Research in Bhubaneswar, sporadic cases of the disease had been diagnosed from hospitalised children between 1992 and 1995. During September-November 2012, following reports of AES and deaths among children in Malkangiri, an epidemiological investigation was carried out by the RMRC to support public health measures taken by the State Health Department. The report says that in 2012, as many as 24 deaths were reported from four villages under two tehsils of the district within a distance of around 18 km. But the current outbreak has covered almost the entire district.

“This report of Japanese encephalitis from this non-endemic area indicated a need for public health vigilance in areas having environmental risk for acquiring JE infection. This can prevent morbidity and mortality by early suspicion and investigation,” said the RMRC’s scientific paper.

Though it is public knowledge that undernourished children aged up to 10 years are particularly vulnerable to JE, the government did not take any concrete steps to vaccinate the children. Only now has the government made an announcement to take up vaccination in phases.

Apart from vaccination, cleanliness measures, distribution of medicated mosquito nets, and an awareness drive before the onset of the monsoon to keep the pigs away from homes could have helped in preventing such an emergency situation, said senior administration officials.

It was only after hospitals started overflowing with affected children that the administration woke up from its deep slumber. Fogging machines were procured to control mosquitoes and distribution of mosquito nets was undertaken on a war footing. Measures were also taken to isolate pigs.

Opposition speaks up

When opposition parties started criticising the government, Health and Family Welfare Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak visited Malkangiri to take stock of the situation. Even then the administration was found struggling to cope with the situation because of the shortage of health professionals.

After the Minister left Malkangiri, former Congress MP from the area Pradeep Majhi undertook a walk from the hospital to the District Collector’s Office carrying the bodies of two children to make the administration aware of the gravity of the situation. He alleged that although cases of JE deaths had been a recurring feature in the district since 2011, there was no effort by the government to prevent the outbreak of the disease. “Since 2011, JE has claimed at least 160 lives in the district, but the government has failed to vaccinate the children against the disease. The government could afford to sit idle in Bhubaneswar, since tribal people are peace-loving and hardly question it,” said Majhi.

Nayak, who did not resign in the wake of the death of children in Malkangiri, however, resigned from his post in the wake of a major fire mishap in Bhubaneswar-based SUM hospital. The fire, which broke out on October 17 evening, claimed the lives of 26 patients. Meanwhile, as poverty-stricken children were getting admitted in hospitals in Malkangiri, at least one of the affected was dying almost every day for lack of medicine available. Some children suffering from cold and fever were being discharged after basic treatment for a few days. Encephalitis caused the death of 90 to 95 per cent of the affected, said a doctor in Malkangiri. Meanwhile, Malkangiri CDMO suspended two health workers, Subal Charan Mistry and Biswanath Patra, who were working at Palkonda and Badli nodal centres, for dereliction of duty. No action was, however, initiated against any other government employee holding any key post in different departments.

In the presence of opposition leaders, several parents from Koimetla village lodged written complaints with the police against Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and some of his Ministers, holding the government responsible for the death of their children.

As the Congress and the BJP continue to blame the Chief Minister for not visiting Malkangiri, the district remains a picture of utter neglect. Local people alleged that many corrupt government officials and leaders of the ruling Biju Janata Dal were swindling the funds meant for various welfare schemes.

In 2014, Malkangiri ranked 15th in the list of 100 districts in the country with the highest prevalence of child wasting, stunting and underweight. According to the latest Annual Health Survey (AHS) data, 33.4 per cent of the children below five years of age in Malkangiri suffered from wasting, stunting and underweight primarily because of undernutrition. It “can be termed as a deficiency of calories or several vital nutrients essential for growth and survival. Undernutrition develops largely when people fail to obtain or prepare food, suffer from a disorder that makes eating or absorbing food difficult, or have a greatly increased need for calories.”

In the AHS list of 100 districts with the highest prevalence of under- and over-nutrition among children, Malkangiri stands 10th with 35 per cent undernutrition. The infant mortality rate (IMR) for Malkangiri is reported to be 48 as against the State average of 56, and the maternal mortality rate (MMR) stands at 245 as against the State average of 230. The worst that has happened to Malkangiri’s poor population in the wake of the outbreak of JE is the fear of losing pigs, a major source of livelihood. Panicky villagers killed hundreds of pigs after the administration identified the animal as the repository of the virus. Those that have survived are being kept in enclosures away from the hamlets.

Regions like Malkangiri have failed to gain their share of development in an equitable manner in the State. Until the powers that be act decisively and sincerely to strengthen the healthcare infrastructure and enable the tribal and other poor people to take care of the nutritional requirements of their children in every region of Odisha, epidemics like JE will continue to take their toll.