Drowning claims highest lives in Odisha among notified disasters

Bhubaneswar: Various notified disasters have claimed 16,372 lives in Odisha in five years.

This was revealed by Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Sudam Marndi in the Assembly today.

The minister made this revelation while replying to a query of Sundargarh MLA Kusum Tete.

According to the minister, as many as 16,372 people in all 30 districts of Odisha have lost their lives in notified disasters including lightning, drowning and snakebites from 2018-19 to 2022-23.

Among the notified disasters, drowning was the reason behind the death of the highest number of 7,874 people in last five years. Snakebites claimed the lives of the second highest number of 5,219 people while lightning was the cause of death of 2,058 others, said the minister.

Altogether 759 people lost their lives in fire mishaps, 140 in cyclones, 46 in boat capsize incidents, 73 in flood, 141 in heatwave and 31 each in whirlwind and heavy rain in the state from 2018-19 to 2022-23, revealed the minister.

The state government is providing Rs 50,000 as compensation for the people died in heatwave in Odisha while the amount is Rs 4 lakh in case of death in other notified disasters, said the minister.

The Revenue Minister further revealed that altogether 259 people in the state were killed in incidents of elephant attack from 2021-22 to 2022-23 while replying to a separate question of Umerkote MLA Nityanand Gond.

According to the minister, crocodile attack was the reason behind the death of 11 people in last two years. However, no one was killed in tiger attack in the state during the above mentioned period, he added.

The compensation amount in case of death in attacks by animals has been increased from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 6 lakh by the state government in May this year, revealed the minister.