The wild species of the cultivated rice are a good reservoir of genetic variability for various biotic and abiotic characters. They harbour significantly higher genetic diversity than the cultivated species. A devastating super cyclone had hit the Orissa coast during 29-30 October, 1999 and about 10,000 people and a lot of properties including plant genetic resources were lost. To salvage the rice genetic resources from the region special collection missions were made during 1999-2001. A total of 483 accessions of two wild rice germplasm, namely Oryza nivara and O. rufipogon were collected from south east India – where they occur abundantly. They were then multiplied for seed increase, characterized, evaluated and conserved. Among the wild rice accessions which showed high variability, 24 accessions were resistant to bacterial blight and two accessions of O. nivara (IC-330470 & IC-330611, were tolerant) to moisture stress.