New Delhi - A searing heatwave across India has claimed at
least 120 lives as officials warned that deficient rainfall may
result in lower agricultural output and higher food prices, officials
and news reports said Thursday.
Soaring temperatures accompanied by power outages and water
shortages sparked off angry protests in the national capital New
Delhi and the financial hub of Mumbai.
Fifty-eight people died in eastern Orissa, the state
worst-affected by the heatwave, VN Sahu, an official at the emergency
control room in state capital Bhubaneshwar said on the telephone.
In northern Uttar Pradesh state, 30 people have died of sunstroke,
the Deccan Herald newspaper reported. Heat-related deaths have been
reported since last month.
School vacations were extended as the heat-wave toll mounted and
the monsoon rains, which usually hit eastern and northern India by
the second week of June, were yet to arrive.
Temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius were recorded in
large swathes of northern, central and eastern India over the past
week.
In the national capital New Delhi, daytime temperatures were
hovering at 43 degrees Celsius in recent days, with weather officials
forecasting no respite.
The highest temperature recorded in Orissa was in the Sambalpur
region where the mercury touched 46.2 degrees Celsius.
'Twelve people died in the Khurda district alone. Most of those
affected by the heatwave are the poor, workers, rickshaw pullers or
the farmers,' Sahu said.
Meanwhile, 17 people have died since Monday in the eastern state
of Jharkhand, which is reeling under scorching heat.
In the neighbouring Bihar state, seven people died from
heatstroke. Eight people died in the coastal district of
Vishakapatnam in southern Andhra Pradesh which has also been in the
grip of a heatwave over the past few weeks, media outlets reported.
Villagers across India resorted to invocations, religious rites
and rituals to prompt delayed monsoon rains, the IANS news agency
reported.
Residents of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh 'married' two frogs to
appease Indra, the god of rains.
Hindu priest Dev Raj Sharma, who solemnized the marriage, said
there was a traditional belief that if frogs are married according to
Vedic or Hindu customs, Indra, was pleased and rainfall take place
within days.
India's Interior Ministry officials said they did not compile
heat-related deaths, though hundreds die during the summer every year.
Indian officials have said the monsoon rains between June and
September were likely to be below normal - at about 93 per cent of
the average.
The delayed rains and heatwave could affect agriculture and have
Indian policymakers worried at a time when they were hoping farm
output could play a key role in propping up the economy affected by
the global recession.
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