Odisha: Six killed in lightning, rain lashes many parts of state
BHUBANESWAR: At least six persons were killed on Friday in separate lightning strikes in the state. These deaths were reported from Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Balasore districts. Bhubaneswar along with other places of the state received heavy rainfall on the day.
Three youths from Badapathara village under Khunta police station in Mayurbhanj district were killed in lightning strikes. The trio identified as Jaminikanta Mahanta (22), Dibyashankara Mahanta (26) and Koushish Mahanta (19) had gone for fishing to a pond near their village at around 11am.
Fire services personnel reached the spot and admitted the youths to Khunta community health centre where the doctor declared them ‘brought dead’.
Two lightning death cases were reported from Jhumpura block in Keonjhar district.
The duo was identified as Randu Munda, 35, of Sarupatala village and Urmila Mudi, 44, of Balabhadrapur. One person Jatri Mahakud of Balabhadrapur was seriously injured in the lightning incident.
The incident happened when Randu was going to her farm land in the afternoon. She was rushed to Jhumpura community helath center for treatment where she died. The other incident took place when Urmila and Jatri were retruning from a bank after withdrawing money. Urmila died at the spot and Jatri felt ill when lightning struck them.
One lightning death was reported from Basta block in Balasore district on Friday morning. The person was identified as Sidhartha Majhi, 18, of Kushadiha village.
In Balasore district, strong winds uprooted trees at several places leading to disruption in communication. Power lines were also snapped at most places. A mobile tower has been collapsed at Chandmari padia in Sahadevkhunta area of Balasore town. Fortunately, no one was hurt in this incident. Houses on which the tower collapsed have been damaged partially.
Several houses and crops were also damaged across the district during the norwester. Strong winds uprooted trees at several places in the town leading to disruption in communication and power lines were also snapped at most places.
K Sudarshan Chakravarthy, Balasore collector said that large trees, electric and telephone poles were also uprooted in the storm. We are trying to normalize the power supply and remove the tree fell on the road. No causality has been reported so far, he added.
Balasore district received heavy rainfall starting from noon to evening. This district received the highest 69 mm rainfall in the state followed by Kosagumuda in Nabarangpur district (60mm) and Mayurbhanj’s Baripada (42mm).
Heavy rainfall accompanied by lightning and thunderstorm lashed the capital city of Bhubaneswar for more than an hour in the evening. Similarly, many places across the state received light to moderate rain lashed several places in the state under the influence of trough line and due to thunderstorm activities.
India Meteorological Department (IMD), Bhubaneswar, sources said a cyclonic circulation over north-east Vidarbha and neighbourhood and a trough line may bring rain with norwester activities to different parts of the state till April 27.
(With inputs from Naresh Patnaik from Keonjhar and Kisan Sahu from Balasore)
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