The Pipili Sanskrutika Parishad would release a book, The Great Orissa Famine 1866-Na’Anka Durbhiksha, at the Panthanivas here on Saturday. The book would be released by former diplomat lalit Mansingh along with Prof Radha Mohan and RD Women’s University Vice-Chancellor Prof Padmaja Mishra.
The book is the outcome of a national seminar held on the 150th year of the Na’ Anka last year in December. The seminar was on the issue of food security in contemporary Odisha.
Seminar chairman lt Gen Narayan Mohanty (Retd) told reporters here on Thursday that the book is a valuable compilation of many unknown facts of the Great Famine of 1866. He said eminent agricultural scientists, economists, administrators and scholars have written about the different aspects of the Na’ Anka.
lt Gen Mohanty said a suitable memorial of the famine should be set up in memory of the millions who had perished in the great disaster. Even though the events that happened have been pushed to one corner of history, it has been a part of Odia consciousness and subconscious ever since.
He added that Odisha still faces regular threats of calamities like droughts, floods and cyclones and crop failures. The scenario is not much different from the pre-famines years.
The growth of population, deforestation, large dams, greenhouse effects, pollution, climate aberration, displacement, water scarcity, etc., are some of the triggers that are keeping Odisha poor.
The book’s editors Anil Dhir and Ramesh Chandra Mohapatro have sourced valuable papers and literature from India and abroad. Many new findings have been uncovered during the one year’s research that was conducted after the seminar.