Heat wave sweeps across west Odisha; 30 dead allegedly due to sunstroke

Reports of 30 alleged sunstroke deaths from different parts of the state were received, according to the Special Relief Commissioner's (SRC) office.

"Only five alleged sunstroke death cases were probed by the district collectors. The cause of death in all the five cases were other than heat-related incidents," SRC P K Mohapatra said.

Highest alleged sunstroke death cases came from Khurda district followed by four from Cuttack district, three from Angul district, while Balasore, Ganjam, Keonjhar and Nayagarh reported two alleged death cases each.

The districts of Rayagada, Nupada, Mayurbhanj, Jharsuguda, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Dhenkanal, Bhadrak, Bargarh and Bolangir reported one each deaths allegedly due to sunstroke.

Day temperatures on Wednesday shot up in western region of Odisha with Titlagarh in Bolangir district recording 45 degrees Celsius even as the mercury dropped in coastal districts.

Bhubaneswar, which recorded 42.9 deg C on Tuesday further reduced to 42.2 deg C on Wednesday, against 45.8 deg C on Monday. The relative humidity also fell to 83% in the state capital.

Titlagarh was followed by Sonepur at 44.8 deg C, another western Odisha town.

As many as 18 places across the state recorded temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius. Talcher (43.6), Bhawanipatna (43.5), Malkangiri (43.4) and Bolangir (43) experienced heatwave conditions.