A 75-year-old woman living alone in a flat in Tollygunge was found dead inside her home on Sunday night. Her son stays abroad.

The body was a few days old and neighbours sensed something amiss after getting a foul smell from the flat that was locked from inside, police said.

Sandhya Rani Das, 75, was found dead inside her flat on Rani Bhabani Road after cops broke open the main door.

The woman had asked her help to stop working in the house because of the pandemic and she had no visitors in the past few months, according to neighbours.

“The body had decomposed. There were no exter-nal injury marks. The woman was all alone. We have been able to contact her son who stays abroad,” an officer of Tollygunge police station said.

The pandemic has left thousands of elderly people in the city — most of whose children stay elsewhere because of professional compulsions — who have chosen to do away with helps for fear of Covid infection alone and totally cut off from others.

Das had no visitors during the lockdown and she had not been seen outside her home for days, the officer said. “We have no idea if she had any ailment or any symptoms of Covid-19 because no one met her in her last days. Her body has been sent for post-mortem.”

Pronam, a project for the elderly by the city police’s community policing wing, has more than 15,000 members but there are many more who are not part of the project.

“We have stopped meeting our members at their home unless there is an emergency. Instead, we regularly check on them through phone calls,” an officer who is attached with Pronam said.

Das was not a Pronam member, the police said.

A large chunk of the elderly population lives in housing complexes where their movement is restricted to their flats, especially during the pandemic.

“Unless there is someone to look after their daily needs, it is impossible to track the health condition of the elderly. Children living at a distance can provide them with mental support on the phone… but practically they need physical support and warmth,” another officer attached with Pronam in the south division, said.

“In the majority of cases, this need is fulfilled by helps and caregivers. But the situation has worsened during the pandemic… the fear of infection has alienated the elderly even from their helps,” the officer said.