Kendrapara, Aug. 6: Tidal waves have made their way into the seaside villages of Mahakalpada, inundating the areas for the past 24 hours. Around 15,000 residents in vulnerable pockets are cut off from the mainland areas because of this situation.

The affected areas, according to official sources, are Batighar and the adjoining Ramnagar and Kharinasi gram panchayats. The tidal ingress has inundated both human habitations and crop fields in some of the gram panchayats lying close to sea.

Reports said that over 5,000 acres of agriculture fields had been submerged, with tidal waves making inroads, spilling over the saline embankment buffer erected about 20ft above the coast.

Batighar gram panchayat has been cut off entirely and the adjoining Ramnagar and Kharinasi gram panchayats have been partially affected.

“Portions of the road connecting the villages have been washed away by tidal waves. There is no road connectivity at present. We are living in misery,” said Ramanath Mandal, a local resident.

“The block officials and personnel of the saline engineering wing division have rushed to the affected areas and are taking stock of the situation. The extent of damage is being assessed,” said Durga Prasad Behera, Kendrapara collector.

However, the local panchayati raj representatives differed from the official version. “No government official has paid a visit to the affected areas so far. The seaside embankments are ill maintained. Funds sanctioned for the purpose are grossly misused. As a result, people are exposed to the vagaries of tidal ingress,” said Balaram Parida, former chairman of Mahakalpada panchayat samiti.

“Batighar and Kharinasi gram panchayats are being frequently hit by the ingress of tidal waves. People are living under constant threat. Despite repeated pleas, no measure has been taken to stop the recurrence of such incidents. About 5km of the coastal embankment had been built about four decades ago to protect the villages. But the embankment is not enough to cope with the sea surge. Unless its length is doubled, the embankment is inadequate to stop ingress of tidal waves,” said Narayan Haldar, a former Sarpanch.

Besides, maintenance of the coastal embankments in the vulnerable Mahakalpada block leaves much to be desired. There has been generous flow of funds, but these are being largely siphoned off. The sluice gates erected at strategic embankments points were left wide open and that led to the unabated ingress of tidal waves into the human settlements, Parida added.