In its resolve to fight poverty, the Orissa government has set a higher target of reducing poverty by 5 per cent during the Tenth Plan period and by 15 per cent during the Eleventh Plan period. Orissa is the poorest state in the country with 47.15 per cent people living below poverty line (BPL). Orissa's Ninth Plan target went haywire because of natural calamities that hit the state repeatedly. The state faced five severe natural calamities between 1997 and 2002, with an estimated Rs 13,230.47 crore loss to the economy.