An Indian coconut seller sleeps on his pushcart under the shade of a tree on a hot summer day in New Delhi
Eating onions, lying in the shade and splashing into rivers, Indians were doing whatever they could yesterday to stay cool during a brutal heat wave that has killed more than 1,400 in the past month.
Meteorological officials said the heat would likely last several more days — scorching crops, killing wildlife and endangering anyone laboring outdoors.
Officials warned people to stay out of the sun, cover their heads and drink plenty of water, but poverty forces many Indians to work despite the risks.
“Either we have to work, putting our lives under threat, or we go without food,” farmer Narasimha said in the badly hit Nalgonda district of southern Andhra Pradesh state. “But we stop work when it becomes unbearable.”
In the city of Nizamabad, 150 kilometers north of the state capital of Hyderabad, construction workers were also still on the job.
“If I don’t work due to the heat, how will my family survive?” said Mahalakshmi, who earns a daily wage of about $3.10.
Most of the 1,412 heat-related deaths so far have occurred in Andhra Pradesh and neighboring Telangana, where temperatures have soared up to 47 degrees Celsius, according to government figures.
Among the most vulnerable were the elderly and the poor, many of whom live in slums or farm huts with no access to air conditioners or sometimes even shade-giving trees.
Those who were able were heeding the government’s advice to avoid the outdoors.
“With so many people dying due to the heat, we are locking the children inside,” teacher Satyamurthy said in Khammam, which registered its highest temperature in 67 years on Saturday when the thermometer hit 48 degrees Celsius.
Cooling monsoon rains were expected to arrive next week in the southern state of Kerala and gradually advance north in coming weeks.
Until then, volunteers were passing out pouches of salted buttermilk or raw onions — both thought to be hydrating. People used handkerchiefs and scarves to block searing winds and stifling air from their faces.
Across the country, teenagers flocked to water basins and rivers to cool off. Many adults took refuge atop woven cots in the shade.
Newspapers devoted full pages to covering the heat wave and its effects, with headlines saying “Homeless bake in tin shelters” and “birds & animals drop dead.” Omer Farooq, Hyderabad, AP
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