New Delhi: The unforgiving summer killed 45 more people in the last 36 hours. The total number of lives lost to suspected heatstroke is now 87.
Nineteen more people died of suspected heatstroke in western Odisha, 16 perished in UP in a single day, while five succumbed to the murderous heat in Bihar, four in Rajasthan and one in Punjab.
In Odisha, the 19 deaths occurred on Thursday and Friday, taking the death toll over the past 48 hours to 29. Experts attributed the sudden rise in fatalities to extremely high temperatures.
Of the 29 deaths, 12 were reported from Sundargarh and nine from Jharsuguda. Sambalpur reported seven deaths, while another person died in Bargarh. Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) Satyabrata Sahu said all these deaths are being investigated to check whether heatstroke was the cause.
Of the nine who died in Jharsuguda, seven were truck drivers passing through the industrial town while transporting minerals.
In UP, 11 of the 16 people who died on Friday were polling personnel. Among the polling personnel, eight, including five home guards, died in Mirzapur, while two polling staff died in Sonbhadra and one in Rae Bareli.
Mirzapur medical college principal RB Kamal said, “We recorded 13 deaths, including those of eight polling personnel, due to heatstroke on Friday. All the victims had medical complications, including high fever, high blood pressure, diabetes. The victims were in the 50-plus age group. The exact cause of death will be known after postmortem reports come, but prima facie it looks like heatstroke aggravated their existing medical issues, resulting in deaths.”
Mirzapur SP Abhinandan said, “The family of each deceased home guard will be given ex-gratia of Rs 15 lakh by EC and relief of Rs 5 lakh from the CM’S relief fund.”
Sonbhadra DM Chandra Vijay Singh confirmed the deaths of two polling personnel to TOI. In Rae Bareli, the deceased polling official was identified as sub-inspector Harishankar.
In Bihar, Friday’s five deaths took the toll to 14, including 10 polling personnel, in the last 24 hours, officials said on Friday. With four deaths on Friday, Rajasthan has witnessed nine heatstroke deaths this summer.
