Bhubaneswar:

A 65-year-old woman was on Saturday found to have been living with the corpses of three of her family members for at least two days in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district, a police officer said.

Decomposed bodies of the three – the woman’s husband, her daughter and grandson – were found hanging in their residence at Chaulia Khamar village under Dhenkanal Sadar police station limits.

The inspector in charge of the police station, Purna Chandra Rout, said that the woman, Pushpanjali Das, on Saturday left the house and went to her son’s place in Dhenkanal town and told him that three were dead.

Following this, her son Prasanna Kumar Das called up someone in the village, who informed him that some stench was coming from the house and that he should come and check.

For some reason, Prasanna has been staying away from his father’s house for around 30 years.

After going to the village with his mother, Prasanna found his father Shankarshan (70) hanging in one room, while his 45-year-old sister Subarna and her son Santosh (18) were also hanging in another.

It is suspected that the three died at least two days ago.

The police officer said the house was located on a secluded side of the village and the family members did not mingle with others.

The bodies were sent for post-mortem examination to ascertain whether the three died by suicide or homicide, he said.

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Bhubaneswar:

More than 10,300 people lost their lives due to drowning, snakebites and natural disasters in Odisha over the past three years, revenue and disaster management minister Suresh Pujari informed the assembly on Thursday.

In a statement, Pujari said 10,302 lives were lost and property worth Rs 2,301.51 crore was damaged due to floods, lightnings, snakebites, fire incidents and drowning between 2021-22 and 2023-24.

According to the minister, 3,351 people were killed in 2021-22, followed by 3,649 deaths in 2022-23, and 3,302 fatalities in 2023-24.

While drowning claimed 5,534 lives, 3,356 died due to snakebites and 874 fatalities were reported because of lightning.

In addition, 429 died from fire incidents, 46 from heatwaves, and 28 from boat capsizes, he said.

The state also reported six deaths due to landslides and 26 due to floods and heavy rainfall, the minister said while replying to a query by BJD legislator Souvic Biswal.

Pujari further noted that four cyclones-Yaas, Gulab, Jawad, and Michaung-hit the state in the last three years. While Cyclone Yaas claimed three lives, no casualties were reported from the other three.

To mitigate the impact of such disasters, Pujari outlined several initiatives by the state government. These include the preparation of disaster management action plans by all government departments and districts, strengthened early warning systems, and the establishment of 24×7 control rooms at both the district and state levels.

For cyclone tracking, Doppler radars have been installed at Paradip and Gopalpur. Additionally, 26 coastal villages across six districts have been declared Tsunami Ready under the Indian Ocean Tsunami Ready Programme. The government has also set up 122 alert siren towers across district headquarters and 22 coastal blocks in six districts under the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project, he added.

The government also uses the Early Warning Dissemination System (EWDS), mass messaging, siren towers, digital mobile radios, and the Sachet platform to inform the public about upcoming disasters, the minister said.

Furthermore, 844 multipurpose cyclone shelters have been built across 25 districts, and 20 Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) units have been established in 15 districts. An NDRF unit is stationed at Munduli (Cuttack), and additional fire service personnel are deployed during natural disasters, Pujari added.

In 2015, the Odisha government had declared heatwave, lightning, boat capsize, tornado, heavy rain, drowning, snakebite and fire as state specific disasters, providing assistance to victims from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).

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Balasore:

The driver of a container truck was burnt alive after the vehicle caught fire when it rammed into a road divider at Laxmannath area here on Sunday, police said.

Personnel from Jaleswar police station and fire fighters reached the spot and managed to douse the flames after an hour, they said.

The driver was charred to death and he is yet to be identified, a police officer said.

The vehicle suddenly caught fire after hitting the road divider at Laxmannath toll plaza on National Highway-60, he said.

Traffic movement was disrupted for some time following the accident, the officer added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)