BERHAMPUR: A man, who was believed to be dead, woke up from his funeral pyre in Haripur village in Sorada block of Ganjam district on Sunday.
Simanchal Mallick, a shepherd, was taken to the cremation ground by the villagers who believed he was dead. But to their surprise, Simanchal woke up. “We were shocked to see the body moving and within a few seconds, he blew out air from his mouth. We quickly doused the pyre and realised Simanchal had just fainted and wasn’t dead”, said Muralidhar Mallick, a relative. Simanchal’s condition is stated to be stable. Earlier, a few villagers and family members had rushed Simanchal to a hospital where he was administered a life saving injection. The doctors said his pulse rate was slow when he was admitted to the hospital. A doctor said the villagers took Simanchal for cremation presuming he was dead without any medical examination. “This is unfair. One should take a body for cremation only after postmortem or if he/she is declared dead by a doctor,” he said.
Simanchal’s family members said he had gone to forest to graze goats on Saturday. When he did not return, they started searching for him and found him lying unconscious in the forest near the village.