Puri: Much before the IMD forecast possible cyclone ‘Dana’, an almanac in Odisha had predicted that sea storm and cyclone would create havoc in several districts in October.
“Khadiratna Panjika”, one of the prominent almanacs followed by the Hindus in the state, has mentioned about the cyclone in its prediction for Odisha for the month of October. It has mentioned three different dates when the state is likely to face severe cyclonic storm.
In page 196 of the almanac, it has been written that several coastal districts will be severely affected by sea storm and cyclone in October. Those dates are between October 17 to 23, 26 to 30, November 5 to 9 and 11 to 15.
As per its prediction, the districts will face very strong wind from sea, oceanic storm, deep depression, high tide and flood during those dates. The places likely to witness the natural havoc include Puri, Cuttack, Gopalpur, Konark, Astarang, Jajapur, Nayagarh, Kakatpur and Niali.
The Khadirtatna Panjika was released for the use of people in April on the day of Mahabisuva Sankranti. ‘Samantasekhar Panjika”, another Odia almanac, has also made similar predictions.
“Almost all almanacs mention their predictions about what is in store for the state and the country at the beginning of every month. The predictions are made on the basis of our traditional astronomical study of the movements of stars and planets,” said Harishankar Mishra, an analyst of almanac in Puri.
It may be mentioned that Odisha alamanacs had also correctly predicted about earlier cyclones including Super Cyclone in 1999, tsunami in 2004, Failin in 2013, HudHud in 2014, Titili in 2018 and Fani in 2019.
