An intense heatwave is sweeping across India with Andhra Pradesh and Telangana being the worst affected as the death toll in the two States over the last few days crossed the 200 mark on Saturday. Overall, the death toll across India was said to be more than 258, with Odisha reporting 23 deaths and the national Capital reporting ten deaths till Saturday, taking Delhi’s toll in the heatwave to 35 for now.
Khammam in Telangana broke its 68-year-old record by registering 48 degrees Celsius, its highest-ever since 1947 when it registered 47.2 degrees. Nalgonda, Karimnagar and Nizamabad districts followed at second place with 47 degrees Celsius breaking their own past records. The situation was equally alarming in Andhra Pradesh where the commercial capital Vijaywada recorded 47 degrees Celsius.
Media reports pegged the number of deaths due to heat wave at over 400 in the two States but officials in both the Governments put it to over 200. BR Meena, Telangana Commissioner for Disaster Management said that 128 people died in the heatwave in the State since April 15. "In the worst-affected Khammam district 16 people died in the last three days," he said adding only the media can explain the toll figures cited by it.
In Andhra Pradesh, officials confirmed 80 deaths over the last one week. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said that the death toll could be more than 100 and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 1 lakh for the kith and kin of each deceased.
Besides the two southern States, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), heatwave to severe heatwave conditions would continue to prevail in Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Bihar and Delhi.
With the day temperature in Delhi mounting to 44.5 degrees Celsius and the minimum temperature of 29.3 degrees Celsius settling at three notches above the season's average, the national Capital, beating the record of five years, witnessed the hottest day of the season on Saturday.
At least ten people reportedly succumbed to the strong heatwave in the past week, increasing the death toll to more than 35 till now. "The number of deaths due to the heatwave this summer could increase as compared to last year," said Sunil Aledia, Centre for Holistic Development. He also added that the people who have died are mostly peddlers, daily wage earners and labourers.
According to the Meteorological Department (MeT), the strong heatwave would continue to sail in and around Delhi in the coming days, giving no sign of relief to Delhi and NCR. "The maximum temperature is expected to hover around 44 degrees Celsius," said an official from MeT.
However, relief could come in the garb of thunderstorms accompanied with squalls at some places in Delhi, West Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and north Rajasthan.
Temperature crossed the 45 degrees Celsius mark in many areas of Maharashtra, UP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
With the situation worsening with each passing day, the Indian Meteorological Center in Hyderabad upgraded the situation to severe heatwave and warned of higher temperatures for another 48 hours.
The temperature in Khammam was a whopping 10 degrees above normal. Khammam which has the reputation of being the hottest place in Telangana, had recorded 47 degrees on Friday along with Nizamabad, Nalgonda and Ramagundam in Karimnagar district.
CITY: TEMPERATURE IN DEGREE C
Chandrapur: 47.6
Vijaywada: 47.3
Allahabad: 47
Wardha: 46.9
Nagpur: 46.5
Jaisalmer: 46.5
Daltonganj: 46.0
Bilaspur: 45.9
Bilaspur: 45.9
Khajuraho: 45.8
Varanasi: 45.6
Hisar: 45.5
Agra: 45.5
Raipur: 45.4
Kota: 45.4
Gaya: 45.3
Churu:45.2
Jaipur: 45.1
Gwalior: 44.4
lucknow: 44.4
Patna: 44.3