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Indian heatwave toll soars to 2200 as monsoon approaches
Date May 31, 2015 - 9:55PM
A girl cools off herself in the waters of the river Ganges in Allahabad, India. Photo: JITENDRA PRAKASH
India's death toll from one of the world's deadliest heatwaves has climbed to more than 2200.
The southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana saw the most deaths after temperatures in the past week soared to their highest sustained levels in 12 years.
The total toll in both states stood at 2177, after about 200 more deaths were reported between Friday and Saturday, officials said. Andhra Pradesh recorded a total of 1636 deaths while Telangana accounted for 541.
An Indian man bathes in water from a roadside tap in Kolkata, India. Photo: Bikas Das
More than 60 deaths were reported from Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat states, as well as the national capital, New Delhi, local reports said.
The heatwave in India is the fifth deadliest heatwave in the world and second deadliest in India, according to Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT), an international disasters database.
According to data on EM-DAT, the deadliest heatwave on record in India was in 1998, killing 2541 people. The most lethal heatwave in the world was the one that hit Europe in 2003, killing more than 71,000 people.
A man cools himself off at a municipal corporation water treatment plant in Agartala, India. Photo: JAYANTA DEY
Temperatures at many places in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana hovered between 40 degrees and 45 degrees. Isolated showers failed to provide any relief.
Most of the victims were poor, forced to work in the open because of their livelihoods, or elderly.
In a radio address on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Indians to not only drink plenty of water and keep their bodies covered to avoid sunstroke, but also to care for birds, animal and cattle, by providing them water.
An Indian worker uses a ricksahw to transport ice from an ice factory in Amritsar. Photo: AFP
India's monsoon rains, which were expected to start on Monday this year, have been delayed by two days and would hit the southern coast of Kerala by Wednesday, local media reported quoting weather experts.
DPA
