An acute water shortage in the Upper Jonk Irrigation Project command area has damaged standing Rabi paddy crops across nearly 2,000 hectares in Odisha’s Nuapada district.
More than 1,200 farmers across nine gram panchayats have reportedly been affected, with many blaming poor coordination and water management.
Officials say cultivation extended beyond the planned irrigation area, putting stress on available water and contributing to crop damage.
Defunct Pani Panchayats, shrinking reservoir storage and long-standing legal and environmental complications linked to the dam have deepened the crisis.
Residents also fear drinking water supplies could be hit before the monsoon, as the intake well inside the dam has reportedly run dry.
An acute water shortage in the command area of the Upper Jonk Irrigation Project has severely affected standing Rabi paddy crops in Nuapada district, creating a drought-like situation across nearly 2,000 hectares of farmland in nine gram panchayats of Nuapada block.
More than 1,200 farmers have reportedly been affected.
At the beginning of the Rabi season, the project had a live storage of 3,239.42 hectare metres. Of this, about 971.83 hectare metres was estimated to be lost to evaporation, while 315.88 hectare metres was reserved for drinking water. This left approximately 1,951.71 hectare metres earmarked for Rabi irrigation.
“The irrigation target was fixed for 1,951.71 hectares, but cultivation extended beyond the administratively planned area, which led to stress on available water and subsequent crop damage,” the district administration argued.
The Pani Panchayats constituted for water distribution and management have reportedly remained defunct for the past three years, placing the responsibility for regulation entirely on the project authority.
While a section of farmers, supported by leaders of various political parties, alleged that no detailed consultation was held before Rabi planning, other cultivators said water spillover from upper ridge fields to lower ridge areas had created an impression that supply would remain adequate throughout the season.
“Further, when PACSs allowed registration for sale of Rabi paddy on the procurement portal, we assumed the administration was confident about sufficient irrigation water,” aggrieved farmers said.
The district administration has not admitted any fault on the part of the Irrigation Department or Primary Agricultural Credit Societies, or PACSs, but has initiated a field assessment to evaluate crop losses.
The irrigation distress is not new.
Officials acknowledge that the full potential of the dam has not been utilised because of long-pending legal and environmental complications, leading to an informal rotational supply arrangement between the left and right canal systems.
The project was originally designed with a Full Reservoir Level, or FRL, of 343.5 metres above mean sea level, a Maximum Water Level, or MWL, of 350.6 metres, and a Dead Storage Level, or DSL, of 343.5 metres.
At FRL, the reservoir was planned to spread over 14.70 sq km, covering a catchment area of 3,555 sq km within the Mahanadi river basin.
Forest land diversion approval for 339.523 hectares was granted in March 1986 under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. However, in 1989, following advice from the Central Water Commission, the state government proposed raising the dam height by 3.5 metres — from 350.6 metres to 354.1 metres — to enhance storage capacity.
The modification required diversion of an additional 142.699 hectares of forest land, including 129.707 hectares within the Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary, which had been notified in 1988.
Despite pending approvals, the dam height was increased in September 1993.
The central government subsequently rejected the proposal for additional forest diversion in January 2002, citing Supreme Court interim orders in Writ Petitions Civil No 202/1995 and 337/1995, relating to forest and wildlife protection.
In February 2002, the Standing Committee of the Indian Board for Wildlife also rejected the proposal, pointing to potential adverse impacts within the sanctuary and highlighting alleged violations, including unauthorised construction of roads and bridges, unregulated fishing and uncontrolled visitor access.
These developments created a mismatch between the originally approved parameters and altered structural features, resulting in long-standing administrative and environmental complications.
The Jonk river system, part of the Mahanadi basin, also faces increasing ecological stress. Studies in watershed areas of neighbouring Chhattisgarh indicate significant groundwater depletion because of over-extraction for irrigation and reduced recharge, weakening base flows and long-term river sustainability.
Between 2016 and 2020, a climate adaptation project supported by NABARD under the National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change implemented watershed interventions across 7,560 hectares in Nuapada district.
The initiative included check dams, soil and water conservation structures, solar-powered irrigation and community-based Pani Panchayats. However, local farmers argue that groundwater recharge in the project area has not improved significantly despite the watershed interventions.
Shrinking reservoir storage has now begun affecting drinking water supply schemes as well.
The intake well constructed within the dam has reportedly run dry, with the receding water level moving far away from the structure. As an interim measure, authorities have deployed two high-capacity motor pumps to lift water from shallow portions of the reservoir and channel it into the intake well.
“With more than a month left before the onset of the monsoon, we are uncertain whether even drinking water requirements can be sustained,” residents said.
Farmers who suffered losses have held the Irrigation Department and district administration responsible for inadequate coordination and water management.
Opposition parties, including the Congress and Biju Janata Dal, have demanded crop compensation and loan waivers to help farmers recover their investments.
Nuapada District Collector Madhusudan Dash is expected to review the matter as affected cultivators urge immediate measures to mitigate losses and prevent a recurrence of such crises.