Extreme temperatures have killed at least 133 people in two populous Indian states as weather experts warned climate change had made parts of southern Asia 30 times more prone to searing heatwaves.
The hot weather has reportedly claimed 68 lives in four days since 15 June in Uttar Pradesh, but officials contested this figure saying they were still looking into the cause of deaths in the northern Indian state, where temperatures hovered between 41 and 45 degrees celsius.
Most deaths were reported in Balia, where the district’s only state-run infirmary has been swamped by patients since the onset of the brutal conditions this month.
“A majority of them were elderly people suffering from issues such as diabetes and respiratory illnesses,” hospital chief SK Yadav told reporters at the facility packed with 400 newly arrived suspected heat stroke patients aged between 17 and 75 years.
Doctors have advised the elderly not to step out in the extreme heat, with private pharmacies reported running low on stocks of medicines and fluids to treat life-threatening dehydration.
On 17 June a railway track melted due to the intense heat after a high-speed Express train hurtled across the damaged section in state capital Lucknow.
With temperatures reaching upwards of 113°F (45°C), a heat wave in northern India is being blamed by some for nearly 170 deaths, more than half of which occurred in the Ballia district. However, some doctors said the patients didn’t have typical heat-related symptoms, and a team… pic.twitter.com/RjRvmZQDMB
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) June 20, 2023
State of denial
The media has reported 47 heat deaths since 31 May in nearby Bihar, where officials also insisted only four people perished in the heatwave that broke an 11-year record in the eastern state of 119 million largely poor people.
Hospitals overflowed with patients as healthcare workers sought medical supplies.
“We don't have enough staff ... Please help arrange for more oxygen cylinders … Our situation is really pitiful,” a doctor named Ashutosh was heard pleading over the phone, NDTV reported.
In April, heat stroke killed 13 people at an open-air event in Mumbai, while five died earlier this month in West Bengal state, prompting the local government to shut schools and colleges.
On Wednesday, the national government went into a huddle with five provincial administrations as rising mercury, a delay in June-September monsoon rains and power blackouts affected hundreds and millions of people.
“With coordinated actions between the centre and states, we can surely ensure there are no deaths due to heatwave,” said Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya as he sought data from the stricken states on the number of people killed.
The weather office, meanwhile, predicted “severe to very severe heatwave conditions” in 11 of India’s 28 states and eight federal territories.
Heat deaths are politically sensitive as they are seen as a commentary on inadequate preparations and deep-seated corruption.
The National Crime Records Bureau reported 20,615 heat-linked deaths between 2000 and 2020, but the figures do not tally with data from the National Disaster Management Authority, which put the toll at 17,767 for the same period.
Warning from experts
Twenty-two researchers, including those from Britain, France, Germany and the US, said warming had made humid heatwaves at least 30 times more likely in parts of southern Asia.
Temperatures were at least two degrees warmer in India, Bangladesh, Laos and Thailand because of climate change, the World Weather Attribution Group said in a study this month.
Earth has warmed by 1.2 degrees since the preindustrial era and if warming reaches 2 degrees the severe heat and humidity as seen in April will become three times more likely in India and Bangladesh and 10 times more likely in Laos and Thailand, it added.
The report came as Cambridge University said 90 percent of India was in the "danger zone" of heatwaves which was putting 80 percent of its 1.4 billion people at risk.
