Updated News | 13 June 2023 | 13:00 Hrs
S S Nadar | news@debotimes.in

The family members had assumed that he had died in the sever...

BERHAMPUR: A 72-year-old man from the Puri district, who went missing in the 1999 Supercyclone, was united with his family members almost after 23 years.

Two sons and a brother of Kirti Chandra Baral of Patigaon in Nimapara block came to Berhampur to take him back to his village on Sunday evening.
Baral was in a Missionaries of Charity (MOC) shelter here for the last two months. He was shifted to Berhampur from Srikakulam MOC in Andhra Pradesh after he told the authorities that his home was in Odisha's Puri district.

"My mother was overjoyed to see him after 23 years," said Seshadeb Baral, 43, one of the sons of Kirti. "He can now recall more after meeting his family," he added.

The family members had assumed that he had died in the severe cyclone in 1999, which had killed around 10.000 people in the state.
We had searched for him intensively, but could not find him. We assumed the worst," Seshadeb said. "We rushed to Berhampur to bring him back after Nimapara police told us about him on Saturday," he added.

He was found ill and lying on the roadside by a councilor in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh who handed him over to MOC there for treatment in 2012. After two years of treatment, he could reveal the names of his state and district in 2014.
He was shifted to the MOC Nirmala Hrudaya Bhawan, Srikakulam, for better communication and to identify his specific location, sources said.

After some time, Kirti could even recall the name of his village, said a volunteer, who treated him there.

The MOC officials then contacted West Bengal Radio HAM (Help Always Mankind), which works to reunite missing persons with their families. "One of the HAM members got in touch with the local police station, said Sajam Joseph of MOC, West Bengal, who was here to hand him over to his family members after completing all formalities.

He, however, said they did not know where he was from 1999 to 2011.