Huge Death Toll In India Heat

More than 1,030 people have died in a heat wave in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, the highest one-week toll on record for any Indian heat wave, authorities said Wednesday. Most of the victims were elderly and poor.

Northern desert winds have led to an abnormally hot May in southern India, with temperatures more than 7 percent above the monthly average. The northern parts of the country have also been baking.

All the deaths occurred May 9-15, when temperatures soared to 120 degrees along the Bay of Bengal, said D.C. Roshaiah, Andhra Pradesh's relief commissioner.

The deaths were expected to taper off as the second week of the heat wave was not so intense, Roashaiah said, adding that there has not been a reported death during the last two days.

Early monsoon rains last week cooled some regions, but the coastal regions still suffer.

At least 172 deaths were reported from the coastal East Godavari district, where temperatures hovered above 109 degrees Wednesday, Roshaiah said.

In the port city of Kakinada, 355 miles east of Hyderabad, the state capital, Wednesday's highest temperature of 110.5 degrees was recorded.

It is the highest one-week toll on record for any Indian heat wave, meteorologists said.

Similar heat waves struck Andhra Pradesh in 1996 and 1998. Andhra Pradesh is the fifth-largest state in India, with 76 million people.

The heat wave conditions were likely to prevail over the coastal belt through Friday as monsoon rains were not expected for a few days, said C.V. Bhadram, director of the meteorological office in Hyderabad.

Last week the death toll in Andhra Pradesh had reached 640, but reports from outlying areas caused the official figure to rise. The dead were mostly elderly and poor who did not have the strength to withstand the heat, which causes dehydration and sunstroke.

Farm laborers and rickshaw pullers who had worked instead of taking shelter also died.

Health workers earlier had said the number of dead would have been higher had local officials not issued warnings and supplied extra drinking water to the poor.

Officials have set up a scientific committee to establish whether global warming was causing the heat wave. However, meteorologists blamed scorching desert winds from the northwest, saying that heat waves always precede the monsoon rains.