Life in the district has become hard due to the excessive cold. People have not been able to come out of their homes except for some emergency works. Patients suffering from cough and cold, fever and cold diarrhoea have increased at hospitals.
Meanwhile, the local Bishnupur rural municipality has distributed blankets to 300 poor and underprivileged families in the area to help them fight the cold.
Five persons including a six-year-old child have died due to hypothermia in Siraha and Saptari districts in as the cold wave grips the plains.
Lav Kumar Saha, 6, the son of Shambhu Saha of Golbazar municipality-4 and 70-year-old Ram Prasad Mahato of Lalpur, Golbazar municipality-2 died due to the freezing cold in Siraha Saturday night.
The child who had become unconscious due to hypothermia died after the parents brought a shaman to cure him thinking that the boy had fainted due to some other cause, a local Ram Bharosi Yadav said.
Similarly, 55-year-old Ram Ratan Mahato of Kasaha, Dhangadhimai municipality-7 died on Saturday due to excessive cold.
Similarly, two persons have died in Saptari district on Saturday due to excessive cold brought by a cold wave that has intensified in the last five days.
The victims include 65-year-old Lakahan Thakur of Agnisaieer, Krishnasabaran rural municipality-4 and 70-year-old Mushaharu Chaudhari of Musharniya, Khadak municipality-8, Deputy Superintendent of Police in Saptari, Dhruba Kumar Shrestha, said.
Thakur succumbed to the cold while he was staying inside a cowshed while Chaudhari died due to hypothermia at his house.
Cold has claimed seven lives in Saptari district so far.
Children and older people of Mushahar community are at the highest risk
The intense cold that has increasing over the last couple of days has made the life hard for the Musahar community at Hanumannagar Kankalani municipality-2 as the people of this community are so poor that they do not have enough clothes to keep themselves warm.
They cannot afford to buy warm clothes and blankets.
The children and the older people in the dalit settlement comprising 60 households are most vulnerable due to the cold, said Krishna Sada, a local.
