Heatwave impact: Odisha govt announces early summer vacation from April 25
Till Saturday, Similipal National Park and Tiger Reserve reports forest fire at 115 points
By Nalini Sahu
Bhubaneswar, April 21: As Odisha continues to reel under intense heatwave, the state government on Sunday announced early summer vacation for school students.
As per a notification, all the government schools, private and aided ones will close for annual summer break from April 25, 2024. This apart, the state government also announced morning classes in schools for a period of three days from Monday, April 22.
As per the official notification, the morning classes for students will be conducted from 6:30 am to 10:30 am till April 24, 2024.
On Sunday, Baripada in Mayurbhanj district became the hottest city in Odisha as it recorded 44.6 degrees Celsius temperature. It was followed by Nuapada which recorded 44 degrees,.
People in twin cities – Cuttack and Bhubaneswar – experienced sizzling heat as the mercury soared to 41.4 degrees in the two cities.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), temperatures in 30 cities of Odisha crossed 40 degrees.
Talcher reeled under severe heatwave as mercury mounted to 43.8 degrees while it was 43.6 degrees in Jharsuguda.
Keonjhar recorded temperature at 43.6 degrees, followed by Angul at 43.3 degrees and Bolangir at 43.2 degrees.
Amidst the grueling summer, reports of forest fire regularly poured in from different parts of the state. Till Saturday, as many as 115 fire points were reported from Similipal National Park and Tiger Reserve in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district.
All these fire points were extinguished by the employees of the Forest department, claimed Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF-Wildlife) Susanta Nanda.
The PCCF (Wildlife) further claimed that the fire points at Similipal were detected and extinguished in time and they could not cause any damage to the flora and fauna.
“Till Saturday, Similipal sanctuary had received fire alerts for 115 points this year and all were extinguished by our green soldiers in time before it could cause any damage in scorching heat,” said the PCCF (Wildlife) in a Twitter (X) post today.
Earlier, there were media reports that at least 134 fire points were reported from Similipal in between March 20 and April 20 this year.
The forest fire has caused extensive damage to Similipal and caused troubles for its wildlife, claimed the media reports.
The reports further claimed that many wild animals are straying into human settlements due to the forest fire at Similipal.
