Bhubaneswar, May 12: The state is reeling from an unabated heatwave and there’s no respite in sight soon with the mercury showing no signs of coming down.

As the summer sun continues to scorch Orissa, reports of death caused by sunstroke are coming in from various parts of the state. Officials, however, have confirmed just one death while five other cases are under investigation.

The victim, Kailash Meher of Katrbagh in Sambalpur district, died on April 23.

“We have received reports of eight deaths so far. Of the three investigated, one case reported from Sambalpur was found to be true. We are now awaiting the outcome of the investigation in the five other cases,” said an official in the office of the special relief commissioner.

The state has turned into a virtual oven with mercury shooting past the 40°C mark in most areas. While the capital city recorded 42.6°C yesterday, the temperature in the neighbouring city of Cuttack was 42.4°C. The mercury hovered around 40°C in many other coastal towns where extreme humidity added to the woes of the people.

The phenomenon is more visible in western Orissa where the mercury crossed the 44°C mark at several places today. While Sambalpur recorded 44.7°C, the mercury touched 44.5°C in the nearby Hirakud town. The temperature in Jharsuguda was 44°C while it was 43.5°C in Sundergarh. The situation was worse in the industrial towns of Talcher and Angul, notorious for atmospheric pollution. While Talcher recorded a temperature of 45.5°C, Angul was reeling at 44.5°C.

Weather officials said the heat wave was the result of the state coming under the influence of hot westerly winds blowing from Rajasthan. “Local conditions like increased deforestation and alarming levels of depleting ground water level due to excessive tapping have also contributed to the phenomenon,” said weatherman Sarat Chandra Panda. Even environmentalists feel that rapid disappearance of green cover has been particularly responsible for the rise in temperature almost throughout the state.

Experts have been debating the phenomenon of unusual rise in temperature since 1998 when 2,042 people died of sunstroke in the state. Although, since then, the number of heat wave casualties has come down significantly, there is no denying the widespread concern over the issue.

“It’s true that people don’t die in thousands anymore but we still have deaths every year. Each casualty is not only a loss in terms of human resource but also financially as ex-gratia payments have to be made to the families of the victims from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund,” said an official, adding that the Centre is yet to accede to the state’s request to treat sunstroke as a natural calamity. “If that happens, the victims would get more monetary compensation from the Calamity Relief Fund. But so far our plea has not been accepted by the Centre,” the official added.

State officials claimed that they were doing their best to help people avoid sunstroke by launching an awareness campaign with a list of dos and don’ts for the summer.

“We are also setting up water kiosks in large numbers in both urban and rural areas,” they said.