COVID Claimed Over 20K Lives In Odisha; Over 14K Lives Lost In Last 5 Years Due To Disasters

Bhubaneswar: COVID has claimed more than 20,000 lives in Odisha between 2020 and 2022 while more than 14,000 people have lost their lives due to disasters, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Pramila Mallik informed the State Assembly on Thursday.

According to the information provided by Mallik, the damage caused due to floods, storms, droughts, and heavy rains since 2012 was estimated at more than Rs 24 lakh crore. No major natural calamities occurred in 2012 and 2016.

The minister has informed that Rs 6,300 crore was received from the Centre for the damage during cyclones whereas the maximum damage was estimated to be around Rs 14,373 crore during cyclone Phailin and Rs 9,336 crore during cyclone Fani.

Besides, during the last 5 years, 14,407 people have lost their lives due to floods, cyclones, droughts, landslides, sun-stroke, snake bites, drowning, boat-sinking, and floods.

Notably, a maximum of 72 people lost their lives in Cyclone Titli, 64 in Cyclone Fani, 22 in Cyclone Phailin, and three in Hudhud. However, no life was lost in cyclone Amphan, Bulbul, Gulab, and Jawaad.