The official sunstroke death figure in the State rose to 12 with two more reported casualties getting confirmed from Angul and Dhenkanal districts on Monday.
The toll increased despite the fact that the temperature has substantially declined across the State due to scattered rains and hail storm occurred in many parts of the State on Sunday evening.
The reduced mercury level has brought relief for the people who were experiencing sizzling heat wave conditions for over a fortnight. However, the local Met office predicted that the mercury would further rise in the coming days.
Deputy Special Relief Commissioner Pravat Kumar Mohapatra said while 46 allegations of sunstroke deaths were received from 17 of the State’s 30 districts, 12 of them have been found died due to sunstroke.
“Out of the 46 deaths, 18 people have died of other reasons while the report of 16 more deaths are under investigation by the district Collectors,” he said.
The highest six complaints of sunstroke deaths have come from Bolangir, while five from Angul, four each from Dhenkanal and Jagatsinghpur and three each from Keonjhar and Khodha districts were reported.
He said while highest three persons died due to sunstroke in Mayurbhanj, one each died in Angul, Baleswar, Bhadrakh, Balangir, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Jajpur, Kendrapada and Khordha.
Met sources here said the heat wave condition is still prevalent in the State and likely to remain for next 48 hours. The day temperature has been declined at many places to below 40 degree Celsius.
As per the MET office report, Bhawanipatna and Titlagarh recorded the day temperature at 41.2 degree and 40.5 degrees Celsius respectively on Monday. The other areas recorded temperature below 40 degree Celsius.