NEW DELHI — Indian officials are wrestling with mounting deaths, water shortages and blazing wildfires as a punishing heat wave continues to grip northern India days after monitors in New Delhi recorded temperatures of 126 degrees (52 Celsius), an all-time high.
The Indian capital reported the death of a 40-year-old migrant laborer — the city’s first heat-related fatality of the year — hours after a weather station recorded the historic temperature on Wednesday. (Indian authorities say they are still verifying the sensor reading.) Since then, reports of heat-related illnesses and deaths have surged across the country as daytime highs continue to hover around 120 degrees and nights remain over 90.
In the eastern states of Bihar and Odisha, 24 people died on Thursday, including three election officials and a police officer who collapsed in the midday sun, the Times of India reported, citing state officials. In the desert state of Rajasthan, 55 heat-related deaths have been reported in the last seven days. Within just a two-hour span on Thursday night, 103 patients complaining of heat stroke were admitted to Sadar Hospital in Aurangabad, surgeon R.B. Shrivastav told The Post by telephone. Five were dead by morning.
The Indian Meteorological Department said the severe heat will gradually abate in Delhi and neighboring states beginning Saturday but that “pockets” of heat might persist.
India’s heat waves are attributed to a combination of short-term weather patterns and long-term warming trends fueled by human-caused climate change. Residents in India’s sprawling capital are often particularly affected, because dense buildings, roads, cars and air conditioners contribute to urban heat, experts say.
Over the last week, climate experts have warned that the grueling temperatures have not only tested the limits of human physiology but also posed other environmental dangers.
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In the Himalayas, a forest near the town of Shimla this week went up in flames. In cities, so did dwellings: On Wednesday, the hottest day, Delhi’s fire department received 183 fire-related calls, a high for the year, fire chief Atul Garg said. Other fire officials warned residents not to let air conditioners get overloaded and cause fires.
Aside from electricity demand, Delhi officials have also warned that the city’s water supply has fallen to crisis levels amid soaring consumption and reduced flow from the Yamuna River — a situation that mirrors the water shortage facing the southern megacity of Bangalore.
This week, Delhi officials instituted a new 2,000-rupee ($24) fine for wasting drinking water. In parts of the city that do not have running water, tanker trucks delivering water will come only once a day instead of twice, city administrators announced, even as television channels aired footage this week of people in urban slums lining up for hours and mobbing water trucks.
At a news conference, Delhi’s water minister, who goes by the single name Atishi, scolded wealthy residents for washing their cars with hoses and urged all residents to cooperate during a time of crisis.
“I want to appeal to people of Delhi,” she said. “Right now, Delhi is facing an emergency situation because of the heat wave.”