Search the Internet          Tips

37 feared dead in Orissa heat wave

At least 37 persons have reportedly died in Orissa over the past one month due to the heat wave, officer on special duty in the state revenue control room Gouri Sankar Swain said on Tuesday.

"This information has been gathered from various sources, including newspaper reports. We have asked district officials to confirm these figures," he told rediff.com.

Ten deaths have been reported from Ganjam district, while some deaths are believed to have taken place in Angul, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Sundergarh, Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Jajpur, Kendrapada, Nayagarh, and Puri districts, he said.

The state government considers a heat wave to prevail when the temperature rises above 45 degree Celsius.

Accordingly, Titlagarh, Bhabanipatna, Bolangir, Koraput, Sambalpur, and Jharsuguda towns have reported heat wave conditions, state health director Harekrishna Das said.

Titlagarh in Bolangir district has consistently recorded temperatures over 47 degrees over the past few days, he told rediff.com.

We have opened control rooms in each block and the district headquarters to monitor the situation, he added.

The main control room is at the state capital Bhubaneswar, he said.

All state hospitals have been asked to stock necessary medicines to treat people affected by the heat wave or those who suffer sunstroke, he said.

Many have already been treated for sunstroke in various hospitals in the state, he said.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Revenue Minister Biswa Bhusan Harichandan have held several meetings with top officials and chalked out a strategy to combat the situation.

Meanwhile, the Bhubaneswar metrological department has said that the temperatures are now on a declining trend.

Rains and thundershowers are likely to occur in isolated places of the state over the next 36 hours, an official at the meteorological office said.

More reports on Orissa

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report