BHUBANESWAR: Natural calamities have claimed 16,372 lives in Odisha in the last five years, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Sudam Marndi informed the Assembly on Thursday. Replying to a question by BJP MLA Kusum Tete, the minister said people have died in natural calamities like lightning, cyclone, flood, fire accident, boat capsize, drowning, flood, heatwave, whirlwind, heavy rain and snakebite from 2018-19 to 2022-23.
A maximum of 7,874 people drowned and 5,219 died due to snakebite. While lightning strikes killed 2,058 people in the state during the period, 759 died in fire mishaps, 141 in heatwaves and 140 in cyclones. Similarly, 73 people were killed in floods, 46 in boat capsize incidents and whirlwinds and heavy rain accounted for 31 deaths each.
Mayurbhanj district has registered the highest number of 1,444 disaster deaths, followed by Ganjam (1,162), Balasore (1,139), Keonjhar (1,115) and Sundargarh (928). Boudh reported the lowest 85 deaths. Mayurbhanj, the home district of Marndi also recorded the highest 651 deaths in drowning, 460 in snakebite, 210 in lightning and 12 in heavy rain.