India's death toll of suspected heatstroke deaths touched 219 with Odisha reporting six fresh casualties and Rajasthan two even as the southwest monsoon advanced to some more parts of south India.
The toll so far in Odisha has reached 147, though only 30 are confirmed sunstroke casualties, sources in state special relief commissioner’s office said. IMD said that heatwave conditions, though with reduced intensity, are likely to continue in isolated pockets in northwest and eastern India for the next 4-5 days before monsoon hits Odisha, a few days ahead of its usual date of June 12.
“Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into remaining parts of central Arabian Sea, remaining parts of Karnataka, some parts of south Maharashtra, Goa, remaining parts Rayalaseema, Telangana and coastal Andhra Pradesh, some parts of south Chhattisgarh and south Odisha during next four to five days,” the IMD bulletin said.
Following thunderstorm activities in several districts of Odisha, day temperature reduced to normal or below normal at several places. In Rajasthan, Jaipur’s SMS hospital recorded two heatstroke fatalities on Monday, taking the toll in the state so far to 12.
A large number of deaths reported in Odisha are from the western part of the state. Sundargarh district is among the worst hit, accounting for 35 suspected heatstroke deaths in three days. Autopsy confirmed that six of them died due to sunstroke, Ashutosh Kulkarni, additional district magistrate of Sundargarh, said.
Balangir district reported 20 suspected sunstroke deaths, four of which were confirmed due to heat related illness. Investigation is on in the remaining 16 cases.
Sambalpur reported 18 suspected cases. “While postmortem examination was done on seven suspected sunstroke deaths, five were confirmed due to sunstroke. Reports of eleven other cases are awaited,” said Sambalpur collector Akshay Sunil Agrawal.
PM holds review meeting
Two days ahead of election results, PM Narendra Modi had a packed schedule on Sunday, which included presiding over seven meetings covering various ministries as he reviewed preparations in the wake of the heat wave and also preparedness for onset of monsoon. Govt sources said that PM instructed officials to continue proper drills for preventing and handling incidents of fire regularly.
PM was informed that the monsoon is likely to be normal and above normal in most parts of the country and below normal in parts of peninsular India.
One of the key sessions involved an extensive review of the new govt’s 100 day agenda, set to be executed following the LS election results, reflecting the confidence of PM that the public mandate would be in his favour for the third time in a row.
