Odisha has been grappling with severe heatwave condition since the past few days and the persisting condition has claimed 45 more lives in the past 24 hours. With these fatalities, the death toll due to severe heat in the state has now reached 141.
While The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said that the heatwave conditions are likely to continue in five western districts of Bargarh, Balangir, Nuapada, Sonepur, and Kalahandi till Wednesday. But the coastal areas will experience hot and muggy weather until the southwest monsoon arrives in the state, IMD added. It was later confirmed by the Odisha government that the postmortem reports of the deceased revealed that 26 out of the 45 reported deaths within the past few days were attributed to heatstroke.
Among the districts of the state, Sundargarh district was one of the most severely affected areas. The districts’ reports indicated that there were 35 suspected heat stroke fatalities over the last three days. “Post-mortem of the bodies are being done. Six deaths have been confirmed due to sunstroke,” Additional District Magistrate of Sundargarh, Ashutosh Kulkarni said. On the other hand, Sambalpur recorded 18 cases of heatwave-linked deaths.
Sambalpur collector Akshay Sunil Agrawal said, “While post-mortem was done on seven, five were confirmed sunstroke. Reports of 11 other cases are awaited.”
It has been reported by weather experts that the heatwave conditions in the country will come to an ease within the next three days.
