Animals Collapse as Water Shortages Bite in India’s Searing Heat

Animals collapse, water shortages bite amid India’s searing heat

Asian elephants cool off in a pond during a hot summer day at the Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Chennai on May 30, 2024. (AFP)

India’s capital Delhi recorded its first heat-related death on Wednesday as the sun scorches. Extreme temperatures spark fires in several regions of the country such as Jammu and Kashmir.

NEW DELHI: Animals collapsed, people scrambled for water tankers with buckets amid shortages, and government employees changed their work hours as scorching summer heat persisted in north India on Thursday.

Thursday’s temperatures were slightly lower in Delhi than the previous day, when one area recorded a high of 52.9 degrees Celsius (127.22 Fahrenheit). However, the region still saw temperatures reaching 47 C (116.6 F).

Delhi, with a population of 20 million, recorded its first heat-related death on Wednesday, with a 40-year-old laborer dying of heatstroke, local media reported. Authorities are investigating if the 52.9 C reading in the Mungeshpur neighborhood on Wednesday was due to a sensor error at the local weather station.

Television images showed people chasing water tankers or climbing on top of them in parts of the city to fill containers amid a severe water shortage that the government blames on low levels in the Yamuna River, Delhi’s main water source.

Along the river’s banks, women in shanties endured stifling conditions in their homes as their cooking stoves worsened the sweltering weather.

“The heat is worse this year. We work like this every day so we get used to it,” said Seema, 19, who cooks for her family twice a day.

In the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, a policeman used CPR to revive a monkey that had fainted and fallen from a tree because of the heat, pumping its chest for 45 minutes, local media reported. Delhi also saw cases of heatstroke among birds.

As more people chose to order food and groceries for home delivery instead of going out in the heat, delivery personnel have been spending more time on their scooters and motorbikes, their employers said.

“Order frequency has been higher during the afternoon when people are avoiding going out,” said Ateef Shaikh, a delivery fleet manager at a Swiggy delivery app store in Mumbai.

Zomato and its grocery delivery business, Blinkit, have taken extra measures to help delivery workers, including providing refreshments and comfortable clothing, their spokespersons said.

Blinkit is installing air coolers in the waiting areas of all its stores, the spokesperson added.

The extreme temperatures have also sparked more fires in several parts of the country, including in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, where authorities are using drones to monitor forest fires.

The country, nearing the end of multi-phase national elections, is not alone in facing unusually high temperatures. Billions across Asia are dealing with the heat, and in neighboring Pakistan, the temperature crossed 52 C (125.6 F) this week.

Scientists say this trend has been worsened by human-driven climate change. India, the world’s third-biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has long held that, as a developing nation, it should not be forced to cut its energy-related emissions but has set a target of becoming a net-zero emitter by 2070.