Three persons, all of them above 50, reportedly died of extreme cold on Tuesday morning. They died because they had to sleep on cold floors without warm cloths on.
Munda Sada, 50, of Lahan-1 and Shreechan Ram Chamar, 60, of Lahan-6, and Khatwi Devi Mahato, 55, of Lalpur-7 in Siraha, Lahan, succumbed to the cold. [break]
Previously, Daya Devi Mahato, of Asanpur-1 in Siraha, reportedly died of hypothermia resulting from extreme cold.
On Tuesday morning, one more person was found dead in Tundikhel of Palpa district. Bijay Yadav, 36, of Shivanagar village-9 in Kapilvastu district, who was in Palpa for treatment at Tansen mission hospital, died of extreme cold as he spent the night under the open sky, according to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Govinda Thapaliya.
According to Republica correspondent Suresh Yadav, in Mahottari district, where nine persons had died of extreme cold on Monday alone, Basu Sada, 63, a resident of Harinmari village in Mahottari, died of cold, taking the death toll by cold wave in the district to 15 over the last week.
According to the police, four persons have died of extreme cold in Saptari district in the last two days. With this, cold wave death toll has reached eight in Siraha and Saptari by Tuesday, said the police.
Earlier, a total of 22 persons, including 14 in Mahottari, had died of extreme cold over the last week in Dhanusha and Parsa districts.
The cold wave, which has been blanketing most of the Tarai districts for the last two weeks, has mostly affected the poor and the elderly people. Of the three, who were found dead Tuesday morning in Siraha, two were manual laborers.
According to Faguwa Sada, a resident of Lahan, Munda Sada, who was found dead Tuesday, had slept on the cold floor without warm cloths on the previous night. Many of the poor and the elderly, who have no warm cloths to wear, have been suffering from cold in Siraha, says Faguwa.
Meanwhile, all government and community-managed schools have been closed down in Siraha after the attendance rate of students sharply declined due to cold, according to District Education Office (DEO) of Siraha. The schools will reopen only after a week.
All schools have been shut down in Dhanusha and Mahottari as well for a week. Private schools have also announced a month-long winter holiday.
According to Republica correspondent Raju Adhikari, the cold has also affected Bhutanese refugees living in bamboo-huts. “Many refugees have been suffering from chest infection,” said Dr Balkrishna Shah who works at Mechi Hospital.
Champa Singh Rai, secretary of Sanischare camp of Morang, said, "We do not have warm cloths. It has been almost 10 years since donors last provided warm cloths to us."
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