- Monday, February 24, 2025
According to officials, heat-related deaths were reported from state such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Jharkhand.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA on Friday (31) reported at least 40 deaths suspected to be caused by heat, 25 of them of staff members deployed on duty for the ongoing general election in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, as heatwave conditions gripped a large swathe of the country.
According to officials, heat-related deaths were reported from the abovementioned states on Thursday (30) also, besides Odisha and Jharkhand.
Rajasthan, another northern state, has reported at least five heat-related deaths so far.
Among the fatalities recorded on Friday, the maximum 17 were from Uttar Pradesh, 14 from Bihar, five from Odisha and four from Jharkhand, where officials said more than 1,300 people are hospitalised with heatstroke conditions.
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The soaring temperatures also caused water scarcity in some parts of the country including in Delhi where the residents faced continued acute shortages, with people in long queues struggling to secure enough to meet their daily needs.
“I stand in line from 4 am, but due to the crowd, I cannot reach the water tanker… It’s hard to get water,” said Vibha Devi, a resident of Delhi’s Geeta Colony. The national capital reportedly recorded a temperature above 52 degrees earlier this week.
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According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the Kanpur weather station in Uttar Pradesh recorded the maximum temperature in the country at 48.2.
Haryana’s Sirsa was the second hottest place at 47.8 degree Celsius. Delhi’s Ayanagar recorded the maximum temperature for the city at 47 degrees Celsius.
Overall, the IMD said heatwave to severe heatwave conditions prevailed over many parts of Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh; in some parts of Bihar, east Madhya Pradesh; in isolated pockets of Odisha, Jharkhand. Heatwave conditions also prevailed in some parts of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Vidarbha, West Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Heat wave conditions have been prevailing over Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi. These conditions are likely to abate during the next two-three days, the IMD said about the prevailing heatwave.
Meanwhile, officials in Uttar Pradesh — where 13 seats including in Sonbhadra district and Mirzapur are going to polls on Saturday — said at least 15 election staff died after suspected heatstroke.
Dr Raj Bahadur Kamal, the principal of Mirzapur’s Maa Vindhyavasini Autonomous State Medical College, told Press Trust of India 13 poll staff died at the hospital.
The deceased include seven home guard jawans, three sanitation workers, one clerk posted at the chief medical officer’s office, one ‘chakbandi adhikaari’ (consolidation officer), and one peon in the home guard team. He said they were brought to the facility with high fever and high blood pressure.
In Sonbhadra district, two polling staff died due to heat-related causes while nine personnel are being treated at a hospital, officials said.
Officials in Uttar Pradesh’s Kaushambi said two people, including an elderly woman, died following heat stroke on Thursday, at the district hospital.
In neighbouring Bihar — where eight general seats are voting on Saturday — officials said 14 people, including 10 polling personnel, have died due to heatstroke in the past two days. Three election officials died in Rohtas, and one each died in Kaimur and Aurangabad districts, it said.
Four other people died in different parts of the state, it added. Due to the heatwave conditions, all schools, coaching institutes and anganwadi centres were shut till June 8. The Odisha government, meanwhile, Friday confirmed five sunstroke-related deaths so far, while an inquiry into 18 more casualties suspected to be linked to heat-related illness is currently underway.
Four persons died of sunstroke in Jharkhand on Friday, while 1,326 others were admitted to hospital amid sweltering heat in most parts of the eastern state, officials said.
(With PTI inputs)
