Asia-Pacific Daily Report

Indian officials and news reports said Thursday (June 25) that a heatwave across India has claimed the lives of at least 120 people. According to Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA), VN Sahu an official at the emergency control room in Orissa's state capital, Bhubaneshwar, said that 58 people died in eastern Orissa, the worst affected state. According to the BBC, unofficial figures in the state media put the number of dead closer to 200. Orissa's disaster management minister Surjya Narayan Patro said that the federal government should declare the heat wave a "national calamity" so that relatives of the dead are compensated better. The Deccan Herald newspaper reported that 30 people have died of sunstroke in northern Uttar Pradesh state. According to DPA, the power outages and water shortages set off angry protests in the capital, New Delhi, and Mumbai. Temperatures of more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) were recorded across northern, central and eastern India over the past week. In New Delhi, temperatures of 109 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) have been recorded. The highest temperature recorded in Orissa was in the Sambalpur region where temperatures reached 115.1 degrees Fahrenheit (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," DPA quoted Sahu as saying. Also in the north in Bihar state, seven people died from heatstroke, while eight people died in southern Andhra Pradesh. In eastern Jharkhand state, 17 people have been killed since Monday (June 22). According to DPA, Interior Ministry officials said that they do not compile heat-related deaths although hundreds are reported to die during the summer each year. According to the BBC, last year 68 people died from the heat in Orissa, which was down from 236 deaths in 2005. Indian officials on Wednesday (June 24) said that monsoon rains in the country were likely to be below normal this year. Officials in Jharkhand said that the monsoon rains, which usually arrive in the second week of June, had not yet arrived. According to the BBC, meteorologists in Andhra Pradesh state said that monsoon rains in the state have been 90 percent below normal until now. Meteorologists in Bihar also said that rains in Bihar were 90 percent below normal. The monsoon season usually lasts from June until September in the country.

Source:

· http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2009/Jun...

· http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8118276.stm

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