Rayagada: An elderly woman lost her life after being struck by lightning in Rayagada district, on Saturday.
The victim, identified as Jamuna Mahanandia from Kharajoda village in Kalyansingpur block, was on her way home from the farmland when heavy rain accompanied by lightning hit the area.
Seeking shelter under a tree, Jamuna was critically injured by a lightning strike. Local villagers immediately rushed her to the Community Health Centre (CHC) at Kalyansingpur, but she was declared dead by the doctors upon arrival.
This incident adds to Odisha’s growing lightning-related fatalities. Recently, Odisha’s Revenue and Disaster Management Minister, Suresh Pujari, informed the State Assembly that the state had recorded 1,625 lightning-related deaths in the past five years, the highest in the country during that period.
