Severe heatwave kills 45 more in Odisha in 24 hours, takes national toll to 211

Among the worst affected is the Sundargarh area, where 35 suspected heatstroke deaths have occurred in only three days.

Suspected heatstroke has claimed 45 more lives in Odisha the last 24 hours, taking the number of deaths in the state to 141 and raising the toll to 211 nationally, even as the Met Office predicted easing of the heatwave conditions in the next few days.

According to a Times of India report, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on June 2 predicted that the severity of heatwave conditions over northwest, central, and eastern India will decline in the following three days.

According to the Odisha government, post-mortem reports revealed that 26 of the 45 deaths reported in the last 24 hours were caused by heatstroke.  Investigations are on to determine if the remaining 107 deaths in Odisha are related to the heatwave, even though the government ascribed eight additional deaths to reasons other than sunstroke. The western region of the state is home to a significant number of probable heatwave deaths that have been documented, according to the TOI report.

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Among the worst affected is the Sundargarh area, where 35 suspected heatstroke deaths have occurred in only in three days. According to Ashutosh Kulkarni, Sundargarh's additional district magistrate, an autopsy revealed that sunstroke was the cause of death for six of them. Twenty suspected sunstroke deaths were recorded in the Balangir region; four of these deaths were later verified as heat-related illnesses. In the remaining 16, investigations are on.

Sambalpur reported 18 suspected cases of heatwave-linked deaths. “While post-mortem was done on seven, five were confirmed sunstroke. Reports of 11 other cases are awaited, the daily quoted Sambalpur collector Akshay Sunil Agrawal as saying.

On June 1, in Daudnagar, Aurangabad in Bihar, constable Ram Bhajan Singh fainted in a bus transporting EVMs. He passed away the next day after being taken to the AIIMS in Patna.

The IMD prediction indicates that heatwave conditions are expected to persist till Wednesday in Odisha's five western districts of Bargarh, Balangir, Nuapada, Sonepur, and Kalahandi. Hot and muggy weather will persist in coastal areas until the state's southwest monsoon arrives, it said.

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