Stating that the deaths due to lightning strike occurred in 29 of the 30 districts of the state, Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) B P Sethi said Ganjam and Mayurbhanj districts reported the highest number of 30 deaths each.
Both the districts were followed by 24 deaths in Balasore, 17 in Bhadrak, 16 in Keonjhar, 15 each in Jajpur and Kendrapara, 13 in Koraput, 12 in Nabarangpur, and 11 each in Dhenkanal, Cuttack and Bargarh.
However, there was no lightning death report from Subarnapur district, the SRC said adding that a total of 206 (73.57 per cent) of those killed were male while 74 were (26.43 per cent) female. Most of the 92 (32.86 per cent) deaths occurred in the month of June.
It was followed by 88 (31.43 per cent) deaths in July, 28 (10 per cent) in August (so far) and eight (2.86 per cent) in April.
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A total of 27 children (9.64 per cent) upto the age of 14 died due to lightning. Another 24 persons (8.57 per cent) who were killed were aged 61 and above.
At least 94 people (33.57 per cent) were struck by lightning when they were working in paddy fields. Another 59 persons (21.07 per cent) and 40 persons (14.29 per cent) were struck when they were near their house and open fields respectively. However, 8.21 per cent people died while they were inside the house.
Four persons were killed while they were bathing in ponds or tube wells. Another three died while riding bikes and one person died while standing on the roof top.
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