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Gujarat: Human fatalities in power mishaps fall, animal deaths rise

Data reveals, 343 persons died of electrocution in 2017-18, down from 352 in 2016-17

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Human fatalities in power mishaps declined marginally even as the number of animal fatalities went up sharply in the state last year, an official document revealed.

A total of 343 persons died of electrocution in the state in 2017-18, documents tabled in the 25th meeting of the State Advisory Committee of Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) on Tuesday revealed. Last year, 352 persons had died of power mishaps.

"These numbers reflect both indoor as well as outdoor human fatalities in accidents involving electricity. The most common cause includes electric shock due to faulty wiring and unauthorised connections. A large number of accidents also take place during work undertaken by power companies themselves," a senior GERC official said.

The official said that the committee reviewed the figures and issued necessary directions to the distribution companies to prevent the occurrence of such accidents in the future.

At 98, the highest number of human fatal cases were reported in the jurisdiction of Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Limited (PGVCL), which supplies electricity to Saurashtra and Kutch region. Torrent Power reported seven human fatalities in its Surat distribution area, the lowest in the state.

A decline was also noticed in non-fatal electricity-related accidents. From 256 in 2016-17, the number of people injured in such accidents fell to 226 this year.

The data, however, shows an increase in animal fatalities in the state. The number of animals dying of electrocution was 494 in the last financial year, whereas it stood at 460 in the preceding year. In fact, animal fatalities in such mishaps have been the highest in the past four years.

Most of these accidents involved protective electric fencing around agricultural fields, the GERC official said.

As many as 249 of the 494 animal fatalities, i.e., more than 50% of the total, were reported from areas where PGVCL distributes electricity. Followed by UGVCL (88), MGVCL, and DGVCL reporting 72 dead each, and Torrent Power Ahmedabad reporting the death of 13 animals. The number of animal fatalities in Torrent's distribution area in Surat was zero.

WHISTLE-BLOWER

A city-based energy expert has filed a petition to the GERC against Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited and State Load Despatch Centre for blocking him from visiting the latter's website. Energy expert KK Bajaj alleged that SLDC had blocked the site from where real-time data for source and quantity of power purchased from different sources and other information were available. Bajaj alleged he was being targeted for trying to expose wrongdoings.

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