JAGATSINGHPUR/GANJAM:Two persons reportedly died of sunstroke in Jagatsinghpur and Ganjam districts on Tuesday. They have been identified as Manoj Kumar Rout, a cook of Etang village under Tirtol police limits in Jagatsinghpur district and Upendra Mohanty (62) of Kanjiama village under Hinjili police limits in Ganjam district.
Rout collapsed while preparing meals for a feast at Bijayachandpur under Paradip police limits and was rushed to Atharbanki hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. Police sent his body to Kujang hospital for autopsy. According to reports, another person had died of sunstroke in the district earlier.
In the second case, Mohanty fell unconscious while ploughing his field. Locals rushed him to a hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. After registering a case of unnatural death, police sent his body to MKCGMCH for autopsy.
Meanwhile, the soaring temperature has severely affected normal life in the two districts. In the Port Town of Paradip and elsewhere in the district the temperature hovered around 41 degree Celsius on Tuesday. The evenings weren’t pleasant either with hot winds blowing for the past few days.Though locals are preferring to stay indoors, business activities in the port and other establishments remained unaffected. Lesser traffic is being witnessed on Cuttack-Nuagaon National Highway, Cuttack-Paradip State Highway and Chandikhol-Paradip National Highway during the peak hours.
In such a scenario, environmentalists claimed that the depletion of forests, vanishing green cover in coastal areas and massive destruction of mangrove forests in Erasama, Balikuda and Kujanga blocks had led to extreme weather conditions. They said about three lakh trees were felled for the proposed POSCO site under Nuagaon and Gadakujanga panchayats, last year.
If this isn’t enough, erratic power supply has added to the woes of people of Raghunathpur, Naugaon, Biridi, Balikuda, Erasama and other areas of the district.Officials of CESU have maintained that power disruptions are either due to repair works or breakdowns. “The wires and other materials used for power transmission in the district, which are over 20 years old, have not yet been replaced. These have been damaged by the heat waves,” the locals said.
Members of Naugaon Electrical Consumer Association had staged protest against the prevailing situation recently. However, nothing has been done so far.Deputy Collector (emergency) Manorama Jalli, however, denied reports of death due to sunstroke. “Administration has taken various steps to meet the eventuality. ‘Jal Chatra’ has been opened in all panchayats to mitigate water problems,” she said.