Some 73 people died in Telangana and 80 deaths were recovered in Andhra Pradesh due to severe heat wave conditions prevailed in the two states, authorities said.
Heatwave in parts of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh has claimed 223 lives so even while people were still going to reel in conditions of intense heat waves, officials said.
“128 people have died in Telangana according to information received this afternoon from various districts,” said Secretary of revenues BR Meena.
In Andhra Pradesh, the figure rose to 95, with 15 people succumbing to the heat wave across the state, a senior official of the
said disaster management department.
The figure refers to the period from May 18 until this afternoon to Andhra Pradesh and from 15 April until this afternoon
Although Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was revealing the dream master capital of Andhra Pradesh Amaravathi Monday in Hyderabad, a human tragedy unfolds in the 13 districts of the State plan. That day, a staggering 100 people succumbed to the scorching heat of summer.
In neighboring Telangana, where Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao has been promising a “Bangaru ‘(golden) state, the situation was just a shade better; the figure was not as overwhelming.
With the monsoon predicted to hit the southern coast on May 30, the whole peninsula is eagerly searching the sky in the hope of relief.
But meanwhile, there is no respite from the Katri, which began on May 25 and is proving to be a murderer, with the number of casualties in just the past two States hike 1000 (250 in Telangana) in the last week. Temperatures across the two states on average 44 degrees C, and peaked at 48 degrees in places like Kothagudem in Telangana and Gannavaram and East Godavari districts of AP like the sun rushed relentlessly.
AP is no stranger to heat waves. Just last year, more than 500 people died (170 of them in Hyderabad) when temperatures soared in May. In 2003, a year particularly bad, the figure was almost 1,500. Summer temperatures soar cyclically. But the surprise of this year is the rate of fatalities in spiral, which has called on governments nap. Unlike other natural disasters such as cyclones and floods, there seems to be no relief plan in place during heat waves, rue experts.
The Met Office has forecasting heat wave conditions in the last two weeks. The peak of more than three degrees in daytime temperatures since May 20 is attributed to a gust of wind from the north-west warm and dry. This unusually prolonged phase is one of the main causes for the increase in deaths from sunstroke. While temperatures are 2-3 degrees above normal in most districts of Telangana, they are up to 8 degrees higher in the cities of AP, said the Met Department in Hyderabad. Environmentalists blame the large-scale deforestation in the name of development of rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall. The two States – AP and Telangana – had nothing concrete to offer people reeling under a heat wave unprecedented beyond routine advice – avoid exposure to the sun 11 am-4 pm and drink water.
Elsewhere, the heat wave killed 26 people in Odisha, with mercury rising above 45 degrees Celsius in the last three days.
Ten people died in West Bengal as temperatures rose above 42 degrees Celsius. The daytime temperature in Allahabad hit 47.7 degrees Celsius on Sunday, according to the Met Department. New Delhi recorded a maximum of 44.5 degrees Celsius (112 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday. New Delhi authorities have not yet released official figures toll from the heat wave. Director of the India Meteorological Department BP Yadav said the heat wave continues in large parts of northern and southern India for “a few days”.
Even the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which lists the hailstorms and cold waves as natural calamities, has not gotten around to grant that status to the deadly heat wave sweeping the country.
According Marri Sashidhar Reddy, former Vice President of the NDMA, intermittent rain during April and early May led to the apparatus of government and the people vigilant and when temperatures began to rise around the world was taken by surprise. He said that several States have called for the heat wave will be included in the list of natural calamities. The rains, expected to hit the southern coast on May 30, is expected to bring some relief, but will still be several weeks before the rains come to the northern dry.
