Dozens die as northern India swelters under heatwave
Officials say at least 34 people have died in the past two days from the heat wave in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh.
At least 34 people have died in the past two days as much of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh sweltered under severe heat, officials said Saturday.
The dead were all over the age of 60 and had pre-existing health conditions that may have been exacerbated by the intense heat.
The fatalities occurred in the Ballia district, about 300 km southeast of Lucknow, the state capital.
Twenty-three deaths were reported on Thursday and another 11 died on Friday, Ballia’s Chief Medical Officer Jayant Kumar said.
“All individuals suffered from a number of ailments and their condition worsened due to the extreme heat,” Kumar told the Associated Press news agency on Saturday.
He said most of the deaths were from heart attacks, strokes and diarrhea.
Diwakar Singh, another medical officer, said the people were taken to Ballia’s main hospital in critical condition.
“The elderly are also vulnerable to extreme heat,” he said.
Data from the Meteorological Department of India shows that Ballia reported a maximum temperature of 42.2 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday, which is 4.7 degrees Celsius above normal.
The scorching summer has caused power outages across the state, leaving people without running water, fans or air conditioners. Many have staged protests.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assured the public that the government was taking all necessary steps to ensure uninterrupted power supply in the state. He urged citizens to cooperate with the government and to use electricity wisely.
“Every village and every city should have enough power during this scorching heat. If errors occur, they must be corrected immediately,” he said in a statement Friday evening.
The main summer months – April, May and June – are generally hot in most parts of India before the monsoon rains bring cooler temperatures. But over the last decade, temperatures have become more intense.
During heat waves, the country usually also suffers severe water shortages, with tens of millions of its 1.4 billion people without running water.
A study by World Weather Attribution, an academic group that investigates the source of extreme heat, found that a scorching heat wave in April that hit parts of South Asia was at least 30 times more likely to be due to climate change.
In April, heat killed 13 people at a government event in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, and some states closed all schools for a week.