Cyclone Fani caused Odisha a loss of over Rs 9,000 cr: 1.6 cr people hit by storm, crops on 1.8 lakh hectare damaged

Bhubaneswar: Cyclonic storm ‘Fani’, which made landfall in Odisha on May 3, caused a loss worth approximately Rs 9,336 crores, a state government official said on Thursday. According to the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), different departments assessed the loss to public properties to be Rs. 6643.63 crore, and an amount of Rs. 2692.63 crore is required for relief measures for the affected people. [caption id=“attachment_6568311” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Odisha’s Puri was one of the areas worst affected by Cyclone Fani. PTI[/caption] “The total loss to the public properties and requirement of fund for relief measures has been estimated as Rs.9336 crores,” read a statement issued on Thursday. In this regard, the Odisha government has sought Rs.5227.68 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) in order to meet the expenditure on the ongoing relief and restoration measures. As of now, Rs.1357.14 crore has been released by the state government to various districts and departments towards disaster response, the statement said. A thorough assessment of the situation in 20,367 villages in the aftermath of the cyclone, it was observed that the cyclone-affected 1.6 crore people and 1.88 lakh hectares of crop areas. “A total of 5,56,761 houses have either been fully or severely or partially damaged. 64 people lost their lives and 12 people received grievous injuries. 2,650 large animals, 3,631 small animals, and 53,26,905 poultry birds have been lost,” the statement said.