India reels under heatwave as death toll tops 2,000

India’s brutal weeks-long heatwave has killed more than 2,000 people, authorities said Saturday, as the government launched a mass education campaign to help people cope with scorching temperatures. Hundreds of mainly poor people die at the height of summer every year in India, but this year’s toll is the second highest in India’s history and fifth most in recorded history globally, according to EM-DAT, an international disaster database.

There has been some relief in the heatwave also but we are out on the roads telling people how to stay safe.

Telangana disaster management chief B.R. Meena

On Saturday, maximum temperatures across India hovered around 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit), with forecasters in New Delhi warning that searing temperatures would continue next week across several states. The annual monsoon is forecast to hit the southern state of Kerala this week before sweeping across the country, but it will be weeks before the cooling rains reach India’s arid plains.

Asia-Pacific