The Mahanadi is known as the lifeline of thousands of fishermen families of both Odisha and Chhattisgarh. But in recent years, due to constant fall in its water level since the onset of summer, the fishermen are reeling under livelihood crisis. This year, the situation has become very critical. Dryness is seen everywhere after the Chhattisgarh Government blocked the water of the Mahanadi and its branches through construction of a number of dams and barrages in the upstream. The shortage of water in the river and in the Hirakud reservoir has posed a great threat to the livelihood of the fishermen families. Due to scarcity of fish in the river, fish catch has fallen drastically and consequently maintaining families has become very difficult for the poor fisher folk nowadays. The fishermen reside in 106 villages, including 79 of Lakhanpur block of Jharsuguda district. Six cooperative societies have been formed in six clusters of the district. There are 3,167 registered members of the societies out of which 2,360 are male and 307 female. That apart, the non-members are large in number, who maintain their households either by fishing or farming. The families with agricultural land before inception of the Hirakud project became displaced with the project and left agriculture as source of income. Later, due to want of proper settlement by the district administration, the displaced families continued to maintain their household by fishing from the Hirakud dam and got included in the category of fisherman in due course of time. Many also started growing. vegetables, paddy etc. along with fishing. But, due to drying up of the Mahanadi river, both summer cultivation and fishing have been greatly affected. The situation has become worse when the fishermen cannot explore any other means to maintain their families. This has caused concern for the fishermen of not only Jharsuguda or Bargarh districts, but for those residing near bank of the Mahanadi river in the neighbouring Chhatisgarh State. With the decreasing trend of water flow in the Mahanadi and Hirakud reservoir affecting fish catch, the cooperative societies are not able to pay the lease value to the State Government. In the coming days, the fishermen will be forced to go outside to seek jobs, said District Fisheries Officer Labnidhar Behera. A negative effect is being experienced all around after water level in the Mahanadi and Hirakud reservoir has gone down, he added.