Epidemiological Investigation for the Incidence of <i>Plasmodium</i><i> falciparum </i>Malaria from Tribal Areas in Koraput District of Odisha State, India

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2.2. Topography

The district has an area of 8,807 sq km, and is situated in the southern part of Odisha State (18013’ and 19010’ north latitude and 8205’ and 83013’ east longitude). A number of 21% (1,879.53 sq km) of the total area is covered with forest ^[19]. Koraput district (Figure 1) lies on a section of the Eastern Ghats and consists of five natural divisions having mean elevation of 3.000, 2.500; 1.000 and 500 feet above the sea level. A number of mountain ranges and isolated hill rise out of these table lands. The whole tract can be divided into the following four divisions each of which can be separated by natural barriers as their respective limits.

The Geographical unit is consists of Bissam Cuttack Gunpur Rayagada &Kashipur in the revere places of state. The whole of the region consists of two fertile valleys of the Nagavali and the Vansadhara, between ruggy mountain ranges. The 3,000 feet plateau extends from Kashipur tehsil to the border of the east Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh. It is drained westward by the Machhkund towards the Godavari valley. The two study villages the Ghataguda and the Phulobandha comes under this category. The 2,000 feet plateau covers almost the entire extent of Nabarangpur Sub divisions. It extends further to the west into Bastar and in the north into the district of Raipur. In the south it falls away by stiphyghats into the Malkangiri Tahsil. The Malkangiri Sub division forms the fourth natural division:There are many out standing peaks in Koraput, the most notable ones being TurriaMunda (5.244 feet) Polamakani Parbat (5,201feet) Meya Mali parbat (4,921feet), Kurmapadikonda (4,896feet) etc.

2.3. Rivers

In Koraput District there are many rivers and perennial streams. There are five large and important rivers two of which, the Vansadhara and the Nagavali, flow southwards into Srikakulam district and ultimately fall into the Bay of Bengal. Of the remaining three, Machkund flows westward and then southward before reaching the basin of river of Godavari. Two other important rivers are Indravati and Kolab. The natural streams of the two study villages drain water to the Kerandi river which ultimately joins with Kolabriver / the Kolab reservoir.

2.4. Forest Area

A large amount of the areas of Koraput District are under forest. 5,521 square miles of the District comes under forest, the forests of Koraput are of Northern tropical semi-evergreen type. There are many plants of great economic importance in the forest. Teak and Sal are found in abundance. Other predominant forest products are bamboo and a particular variety of coarse grass rising up to a height of 10 feet. In the more densely-populated areas, as in the hills to the south of Koraput, the practice of shifting cultivation repeatedly carried out over a long period has reduced the forest to an open scrub type or barren soil. The existing forest has all been under shifting cultivation. In Koraput Disttrict shifting cultivation is known as “podu”, the Paraja call it Kodki. Forest area of Koraput district has come down to 21.34% of total geographical area of the district. Reckless forest cutting and deforestation quickly degraded its forest resources. Apart from it Podu cultivation by the local inhabitants further degraded its plant habitant.

2.5. Soil

In Koraput, red soil with small patches of late rite soil is found in the northeast and black cotton soil in the southeast. Rocks contain large deposits of Iron, Manganese, Mica and Graphite. Limestone deposits are also found abundantly.

2.6. Agriculture

Agriculture takes a predominate role in the district economy. Paddy is the principal crop; raggi is the next production of paddy occupied 1.0 loch hector, maize 1508 hector and Vegetable 26722 hector during khariff season of 2009-10. The Koraput region is famous for hills, forests and its tribal people. The Tribal mostly live in the hills and forests and therefore, the “Adivasis” are also called “Girijans” and the “Vanavasis”. Until 1960s about the 70 per cent of the geographical areas of the region was covered by the forests; but due to several reasons a large part of the forest area has been destroyed and at present only about 24 per cent of the area has some forest cover.

2.7. Meteorological Data

The type of weather of the Koraput district is characterized by hot summer (March–June), rainy (July–October) and cold (November–February) seasons. The monsoon usually breaks during the later part of June each year. Average annually rainfall recorded during 2007 was 2,278.0 mm, of which >80% occurred during July to September under the influence of the south-west monsoon. Maximum rainfall was in August. The mean minimum temperature varied between 14.0°C (January–February) and 27.5°C (April–May) and mean maximum temperature between 27.0°C (December) and 41.5°C (May) ^[19].

2.8. Demographic Features

The Koraput district, constituting more than 55% of the district’s total population, distributed in 14 CHCs (Table 1 & Table 2). The major occupation of the people is agriculture and collection of forest products. The people of the district, in general, are economically poor; their literacy rate is 35.7% against the State’s 63.1% ^{[19, 20]}. They have immense faith in sorcery and witchcraft. The villages are scattered and the houses are built of thatched or tiled roof and mud wall. Houses are generally dark, damp and often without ventilation. Cattle sheds are adjacent to human dwellings and very often domestic animals, such as chicken and goats are also sheltered in the house.

Table 1. Koraput District at a Glance (Source: Census of Odisha State)

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2.9. Epidemiological Survey

Epidemiological surveys were conducted in the study area during 2007-2011. Yearly epidemiological data were collected from District Health Department, CHC and SC Centre of Koraput district, Odhisa. Different parameters such as P. falciparum percentage (Pf %), slide positivity rate (SPR) and annual parasite incidence (API) were calculated to assess the malaria situation. The above mentioned parameters were calculated by the following methods:

Table 2. Health related indicators of Koraput District at a Glance (Courtesy: Health department of India)

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3. Results

The summary of the data for the assessment of the endemic inference of malaria that the only one Plasmodium specie P. falciparum on Koraput district, CHC and SC from 2007 to 2011 is presented in Table 3, Table 4 & Table 5. Annual results revealed that in 2011, a moderate number of malaria cases, mainly due to P. falciparum, were recorded (Table 4 & Table 5). During 2009 in Kunduli CHC %Pf, SPR and API were 100%, 25.7 and 38.6 respectively. The % Pf, SPR and API of Dudhari Sbub Centre in year 2010 were 100%, 14.86 and 35.31 respectively. From 2007 onwards there was steady increase in number of P. falciparum cases and during 2008, the the prevalences of infection caused by the P. falciparum were high (Table 3). From 2007 onwards both SPR and API showed an increasing trend while death was on decline. There was further sudden increase in 2010 and SPR and API rose to 19.7% and 36.7%, respectively. However, SPR showed further decline (16.1%). In year 2011, there was a decline in number of malaria infections but the trend of SPR and API and SPR remained the same. P. falciparum percentage was progressively from 92.7% in 2007 to 94.8% in 2011. This yearly change in P. falciparum percentage is shown in Table 5.

Table 3. Epidemiological Data of Malaria for Koraput District from 2007- 2011

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Table 4. Epidemiological Data of Malaria for Kunduli CHC from 2007-2011

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Table 5. Epidemiological Data of Malaria for Dudhari Sub-Centre from 2007-2011

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