India on Friday reported at least 40 suspected heat-related deaths, 25 of them of staff deployed on Lok Sabha poll duty in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, as heatwave conditions gripped a large swathe of the country.
According to officials, heat-related deaths were reported from Odisha (10), Bihar (8), Jharkhand (4) and Uttar Pradesh (1) on Thursday also. Rajasthan has reported at least five heat-related deaths so far.
Ten fatalities were recorded at the government hospital in Odisha's Rourkela region on Thursday, authorities told Reuters news agency.
Heat-stroke related deaths have also been reported from the states of Bihar, Rajasthan and Jharkhand and the national capital, Delhi.
The searing heat comes as India is holding its general election, the results of which will be declared on 4 June.
Mahendra Kumar, district magistrate of Bhojpur district in Bihar told the Times of India newspaper that three election officers and a policeman had died in the city on Thursday due to heat stroke.
"It was the hottest day, and despite having medical facilities at all centres, they collapsed. One home guard [volunteer policeman] became unconscious where he was staying," Mr Kumar said, adding that the man died in the hospital while being treated by doctors.
He also said that around 30-40 people had been admitted to the same hospital on Thursday due to heat-related ailments.
Hospitals in the region are recording a rise in admissions due to heat-related ailments.
On Thursday, a labourer admitted with a heat stroke died while receiving treatment at a hospital in Delhi.
India's National Centre for Disease Control calls heat strokes a "life-threatening" condition with a mortality rate of 40 to 64%.
The heat in northern, central and parts of western India has been unrelenting for the past two weeks, with maximum temperatures hovering around 45-46C for days at a stretch and even climbing up to 50C in some areas.
Several regions are experiencing severe water and electricity shortages due to a rise in consumption. The soaring temperatures have led to a surge in fires across India and authorities are employing drones to monitor forest fires in Jammu and Kashmir.
Temperatures rose above 52 degrees Celsius in Pakistan's southern province of Sindh, the highest reading of the summer and close to the country's record high amid an ongoing heatwave, the met office said on Monday.
Extreme temperatures throughout Asia over the past month were made worse most likely as a result of human-driven climate change, a team of international scientists have said.
In Mohenjo Daro, a town in Sindh known for archaeological sites that date back to the Indus Valley Civilisation built in 2500 BC, temperatures rose as high as 52.2 degrees Celsius over the last 24 hours, a senior official of the Pakistan Meteorological Department, Shahid Abbas told Reuters.
The reading is the highest of the summer so far, and approached the town's and country's record highs of 53.5 degrees Celsius and 54 degrees Celsius, respectively.
Mohenjo Daro is a small town that experiences extremely hot summers and mild winters, and low rainfall, but its limited markets, including bakeries, tea shops, mechanics, electronic repair shops, and fruit and vegetable sellers, are usually bustling with customers.
But with the current heatwave, shops are seeing almost no footfall.
"The customers are not coming to the restaurant because of extreme heat. I sit idle at the restaurant with these tables and chairs and without any customers," said Wajid Ali, 32, who owns a tea stall in the town.
Bond is hidden new all time high,
"I take baths several times a day, which gives me a little relief. Also, there is no power. The heat has made us very uneasy."
Close to Ali's shop is an electronics repair shop run by Abdul Khaliq, 30, who sat working with the shop's shutter half down to shield him from the sun. Khaliq also complained about the heat affecting business.
Among the fatalities recorded on Friday, the maximum 17 were from Uttar Pradesh, 14 from Bihar, five from Odisha and four from Jharkhand, where officials said more than 1,300 people are hospitalised with heatstroke conditions.
The soaring temperatures also caused water scarcity in some parts of the country including in Delhi where the residents faced continued acute shortages, with people in long queues struggling to secure enough to meet their daily needs.
“I stand in line from 4 am, but due to the crowd, I cannot reach the water tanker... It’s hard to get water,” said Vibha Devi, a resident of Delhi’s Geeta Colony.
According to the India Meteorological Department, the Kanpur (IAF) weather station recorded the maximum temperature in the country at 48.2. Haryana’s Sirsa was the second hottest place at 47.8 degree Celsius. Delhi’s Ayanagar recorded the maximum temperature for the city at 47 degrees Celsius.
Overall, the IMD said heatwave to severe heatwave conditions prevailed over many parts of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh; in some parts of Bihar, east Madhya Pradesh; in isolated pockets of Odisha, Jharkhand.
Heatwave conditions also prevailed in some parts of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Vidarbha, West Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Heat wave conditions have been prevailing over Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi.
These conditions are likely to abate during the next two-three days, the India Meteorological Department said the prevailing heatwave.
Meanwhile, officials in Uttar Pradesh—where 13 seats including in Sonbhadra district and Mirzapur are going to polls on Saturday—said at least 15 election staff died after suspected heatstroke.
Dr Raj Bahadur Kamal, the principal of Mirzapur’s Maa Vindhyavasini Autonomous State Medical College, told PTI 13 poll staff died at the hospital. The deceased include seven home guard jawans, three sanitation workers, one clerk posted at the Chief Medical Officer’s office, one chakbandi adhikaari (consolidation officer), and one peon in the home guard team.
He said they were brought to the facility with high fever and high blood pressure.
In Sonbhadra district, two polling staff died due to heat-related causes while nine personnel are being treated at a hospital, officials said.
Officials in Uttar Pradesh’s in Kaushambi said two people, including an elderly woman, died following heat stroke on Thursday, at the district hospital.
In neighbouring Bihar -- where eight Lok Sabha seats are voting on Saturday—officials said fourteen people, including 10 polling personnel, have died due to heatstroke in the past two days.
Three election officials died in Rohtas, and one each died in Kaimur and Aurangabad districts, it said. Four other people died in different parts of the state, it added.
Due to the heatwave conditions, all schools, coaching institutes and anganwadi centres were shut till June 8.
The Odisha government, meanwhile, Friday confirmed five sunstroke-related deaths so far, while an inquiry into 18 more casualties suspected to be linked to heat-related illness is currently underway.
Four persons died of sunstroke in Jharkhand on Friday, while 1,326 others were admitted to hospital amid sweltering heat in most parts of the eastern state, officials said.
All district hospitals and other medical facilities have been asked to set aside air-conditioned rooms and empty beds for heatstroke patients, they said.
“Four persons - three in Palamu and one in Jamshedpur - died of heatstroke in Jharkhand. These deaths did not occur in hospitals. As many as 1,326 people were admitted to hospitals in different districts of the state due to heat-related issues. Out of these, 63 are confirmed cases of heatstroke so far,” Dr Alok Trivedi, Mission Director, National Health Mission (Jharkhand), told PTI.
Meanwhile, the IMD said the Southwest Monsoon has advanced into remaining parts of northeast Bay of Bengal and some parts of northwest Bay of Bengal, remaining parts of Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam and most parts of Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim.
