Heat wave

India's poor swelter as deadly heat wave kills more than 1,100

By Mallika Kapur and Hilary Whiteman

From behind her stall on the stifling hot streets of Hyderabad, Amruta Bai spends her day refilling plastic water cups.

It's free for anyone who needs a drink during a deadly heat wave that's killed more than 1,154 people in the past few days.

Most of the deaths -- 884 -- have been recorded in the state of Andhra Pradesh, though another 266 have died here in Telangana, of which Hyderabad is the capital. There are four more confirmed deaths in Odisha from the heat, and another 67 unconfirmed cases.

People stop by Bai's stall every two minutes as the temperature slowly rises towards its peak, typically in mid to late afternoon.

On Wednesday, temperatures in Hyderabad were forecast to hit a high of almost 43 degrees Celsius, or around 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Nights, while cooler, hover around a sticky 30 degrees Celsius or 86 degrees Fahrenheit. During the day, humidity is around 30%.

Ice cream seller Bharat says evenings and early mornings are the best for business. He's selling twice as much ice cream this year, compared to last year. But afternoons are typically quiet. It's too hot for most people to come onto the streets.

And that's where the true cost of this heat wave has been felt.

Millions of people in India are homeless. The streets are where they live with only rudimentary shelter. Air conditioning or even fans are a distant dream.

Many of the hundreds of people who have succumbed to the heat -- by dehydration or otherwise -- were too poor, too frail or too ill to cope.

However, the chief secretary of Telangana said many of the 266 deaths in that state could have been avoided if victims had taken "a little more care."

When asked what he meant by a "little more care," B.R. Meena said: "Cover properly, have light color clothes, take umbrella, take care, be in cool area -- had they taken such care, this could have been avoided."

He said people were being urged to use an umbrella, hat or turban, drink plenty of water and avoid going outside during the hours of 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.

India recorded its highest maximum temperature of 47.6 degrees Celsius -- 117 degrees Fahrenheit -- at Titlagarh in the state of Odisha on Monday, according to the country's main weather office.

In many places in the country's north, central and eastern plains, temperatures are about two to five degrees higher than average.

Westerly winds blowing in from Pakistan's Sindh province was making already hot conditions worse, said B.P. Yadav, director of the India Meteorological Department.

Relief is expected to come in the form of monsoon rains later in the week, though the country's weather agency said another hot spell was likely to follow.