Govt confirms 3 sunstroke deaths this summer

Bhubaneswar: The govt on Friday officially confirmed three sunstroke deaths this summer. A govt report said while it had received allegations of 16 deaths due to heatwave, four were ruled out, three confirmed and the rest still under scrutiny.

Office of the special relief commissioner (SRC) on Friday issued a situation report mentioning the sunstroke deaths in the state. “Out of the 16 allegations of heatwave-related deaths, four cases have been negated by concerned district emergency operation centres (DEOCs) after receipt of postmortem reports,” said the report of the SRC.

Gabriel Munda, 58, of Fakirmunda village under K Balang police station in Sundargarh district, died last month due to sunstroke. He felt unwell when he was busy digging a well in his village on April 26. Munda was declared dead at Lahunipada CHC. “Ex gratia assistance of Rs 50,000 has been given to wife of Munda. He died of sunstroke,” said Aswini Panda, emergency officer, Sundargarh.

Similarly, Bansidhar Bhoi, 46, a teacher in Ulunda block in Subarnapur district, died in April while carrying out his census duty.

The SRC report also stated that three people (two from Jajpur district and one from Dhenkanal district) died due to lightning in the last 24 hours. The lightning also claimed the lives of four livestock in Jajpur district. Besides, three people from Keonjhar district died due to a whirlwind on Thursday, it added.

All such reports came with mercury hovering at 40°C to over 44°C at 12 places in western and interior parts of the state during the day. Jharsuguda, which continued to remain hottest in the state for several days this summer, was hottest at 45.2°C again on Friday. Boudh, Sambalpur and Titlagarh followed at 44.5°C, 44.2°C and 44°C respectively.

In coastal pockets, hot and humid conditions with high heat index left people to suffer even as maximum temperature stood below 40°C at most places, compared to the previous day.

Bhubaneswar recorded a maximum 37.7°C while heat index, a real feel on skin, touched 54°C at 2.30 pm on Friday. Humidity in the capital city was 79% at 8.30 am and 74% at 5.30 pm. “The humidity mixed with heat has created an unbearable condition in the city. Even fans are releasing hot air,” said Tapan Behera, a shopkeeper at Nayapalli.

IMD further forecast that there would be no relief from prevailing intense heatwave conditions till May 26. IMD issued heatwave to severe heatwave, warm night condition as well as hot and humid condition for several districts during the period. This would be with thunderstorm activity warning in some districts too.

(With inputs from Malay Ray from Rourkela and Avinash Mohanty from Balangir)