The Odisha government on Friday said that the flood situation in the state is under control.

However, under the impact of the flood, hundreds of villages have been marooned in different parts of the state.

Engineer-in-chief, the water resources department, Bhakta Ranjan Mohanty told The Telegraph: “All the major rivers of the state, including Mahanadi, Baitarani, Brahamani, Banshadhara, are flowing below the danger level. There is no immediate threat of a major flood.”

Mohanty said: “We have regulated the flow of water under the Mahanadi river system using the Hirakud reservoir gates. Now only seven gates are opened. While the inflow to the reservoir is 4.97 lakh cusec of water per second, the outflow from the reservoir is only 1 lakh cusec of water per second. Only seven gates out of the 64 sluice gates of the reservoir have now been opened. The current level of the Hirakud reservoir is 619.97 feet against its full reservoir capacity of 630 feet. So there is no threat of a major flood in Mahanadi.”

“The water level in the Mahanadi river started receding. The water level at Mundali is below 7 lakh cusec at this moment. Only two breaches have been reported. We will repair it soon.”

Similarly water levels in the other river systems like Baitarani, Brahamani in north Odisha and Bamshadahara in southern Odisha, have also receded. Many areas of districts like Nayagarh, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts have been hit. The people from the low-lying areas have been shifted to safer places.

What comes as a big relief for the state government is that there is no more warning of major rainfall in the state by the India Meteorological Department. It has not issued red and orange warning. It has predicted light to moderate rainfall in different parts of the state in the next 48 hours.

However, two deaths were reported on Thursday as two people reportedly died of drowning in the Badanadi river in Ganjam in southern Odisha. Cases of death due to snake bites were also reported in the state. Special relief commissioner Satyabrata Sahu has asked all the district collectors to send the flood-related damage and crop damage report within seven days.