Country suffers one of the worst bouts of hot weather for several years, with more than 1,000 heat-related deaths in southern state of Andhra Pradesh alone

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The death toll in India’s heatwave has climbed towards 1,500 as the country sweltered in one of the worst bouts of hot weather for several years.

Southern India has borne the brunt of the sudden spell of hot, dry weather. So far more than 1,000 people have died in the state of Andhra Pradesh, more than double the total number of heat-related deaths last summer, authorities said.

“This is the highest death toll due to heatwave ever in the state,” said Tulasi Rani, the special commissioner for disaster management in Andhra Pradesh. “Last year around 447 people died due to heat. This year the heatwave is continuing for a longer period than in previous years.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Workers assemble air coolers for sale as the temperature rises in New Delhi. Photograph: Rajat Gupta/EPA

India heatwave kills more than 500 people Read more

Rani said temperatures were two to five degrees higher than the seasonal average.



The death toll in neighbouring Telangana, where temperatures hit 48C (118F) over the weekend, stood at 340.

Dr T Padmaja, the medical and health officer in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district, one of the worst affected areas, said leave had been cancelled for doctors.

Local authorities across India have launched intensive awareness campaigns, asking people to stay indoors between 1pm and 4pm and advising them to wear broad-brimmed hats and light-coloured cotton clothes, use umbrellas and drink lots of fluid.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Motorcyclists are covered up to protect themselves against the scorching heat in Bhopal. Photograph: Sajneev Gupta/EPA

Among the most vulnerable are older people and poorer people, many of whom live in slums or farm huts with no access to air conditioners or sometimes even trees which could cast shade.

Many victims were day labourers, who need to work to eat. “If I don’t work due to the heat, how will my family survive?” said Mahalakshmi, who earns a 200 rupees (£2) a day as a construction labourer in the southern city of Nizamabad, Telangana state.

The homeless were also badly hit. Near one shelter in Delhi, dozens of men tried to keep cool in the shade of nearby trees. Others begged from the drivers of vehicles waiting at nearby traffic lights. “If they give me anything I spend it on water at the moment not food,” said Deepak Ram Lal, 42.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A man uses a rickshaw to transport ice from a factory in Amritsar. Photograph: Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images

The capital’s air conditioned metro and shopping malls have become much-sought-after havens from the heat, while power cuts in residential areas were frequent as the grid struggled to cope with the demand from millions of air conditioners.

Residents of Gurgaon – a high-rise satellite city, home to many of the Delhi’s workers – experienced power cuts of up to 10 hours a day. “Nothing is working – even after taking half a dozen baths a day, you can’t beat the heat,” shop owner Manish Singh said. “It’s worse than previous years; we hardly get any electricity and the air conditioners become useless.”

The heat has melted roads near the capital and caused problems with maintaining animal welfare at farms and the country’s zoos. Brahma Prakash Yadav, director of the Indian meteorological department, said though maximum temperatures would remain high until the weekend, rain would bring some relief early next week (PDF).

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Boys sit in a plastic container filled with water on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters

The highest temperature ever recorded in the capital was 47.2C, in May 1944. The record in India is thought to be 50.6C, recorded in 1956 in the northern town of Alwar.

The death toll is worse than the severe heatwave in 2010, which started much earlier, registering the highest temperatures for decades and lasting for months. But experts say compiling casualty statistics for heatwaves is extremely difficult owing to difficulties in attributing cause of death and registering fatalities in remote areas.

May and June are India’s hottest months, with temperatures regularly pushing above 40C. But meteorologists say the number of days when temperatures approach 45C has increased in the past 15 years.

The monsoon, predicted to hit southern India’s coastline on 31 May, will bring relief from the high temperatures, but it will not reach the parched north of the country for several weeks.



