About 1400 lives have been lost to extreme heat in India within a timespan of just over a week. In fact, the heat there is so insane that roads have been “melting”! So how hot is it? Temperatures in many parts of India have reached around 122 °F – that is mindboggling as the hottest recorded temperature in India was 123 °F and that was from a desert like region of Rajasthan.
As developed as India is, poverty still stifles a huge population of the country and like developed countries of the west where laborers can get living wages, laborers in India almost get the bare minimum and for financial reasons are forced to work in such horrid conditions.
Most of the deaths came from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh (about 1020) and the neighboring state of Telangana (about 340). “Almost all the victims are old,” said B.R. Meena, principle secretary for revenue for Telangana. “Inquiries reveal that most of them were working and were exposed to the heat. Dehydration and heat stroke caused the deaths.”
Adding insult to injury; not everybody (in fact most) people in India do not have air-conditioning available in their homes. What makes things even worse is that power cuts are common occurrence throughout the country and get significantly worse when towns and cities begin to utilize it on a bigger scale.
What is undetermined so far is how the wildlife of the country is handling the ruthless heat however one can certainly presume that they are not having the time of their lives.
While India may be a hot country in general, the heatwaves have been getting gradually worse over the years courtesy of climate change – which makes now an important time to take drastic measures to help stall the process. Heatwaves along with dry climate make for a great recipe for fires than can burn crops and forests. For a country that is immensely populated, putting more environmental friendly solutions to capture and burn energy/fuels must be a priority – but also a priority globally.
The only upside to this entire story is that rains are being predicted to come down any minute which will help cool the situation down a little; however the rest of the season will be certainly turbulent until the monsoon season picks up – which let’s face it, could not come any sooner.