Indian Heat Wave Toll Touches 130 Dead

Up To 50°C/122°F

Agence France-Presse 17jun2005

NEW DELHI — The death toll from a heat wave blistering large parts of India has touched 130, officials said Friday, as the central bank insisted forecasts of a stalled monsoon would not upset its economic growth forecast of seven percent.

The death toll jumped from 65 reported a week ago to at least 130 after 39 people succumbed to the heat in the sizzling plains of northern Uttar Pradesh state, another 20 in West Bengal state and six more in Bihar, the officials said.

Most of the victims in Uttar Pradesh were children, they said, adding that three populous districts ringing the Taj Mahal town of Agra, 250 kilometres (155 miles) north of the Indian capital were the hottest with temperatures soaring past 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 degrees Fahrenheit).

Even hotter were parts of West Bengal state which recorded a brain-numbing 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).

"In the past week 20 people died from sunstroke in the districts of Purulia and Burdwan," Bengal's relief secretary Atunu Purokyasto said, adding the school holidays had been extended as a result.

Earlier this month, at least 54 people died in eastern Orissa state where temperatures hit 49 degrees Celsius (120.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in rural areas, drying up wells and scorching paddy fields.

The scorching heat also killed 11 people in western Maharashtra and southern Andhra Pradesh states where 1,400 people lost their lives in a deadly heat wave in 2003.

In New Delhi, the 14 million population reeled under smothering heat for the fifth straight day Friday and temperatures of 43 degrees Celsius prompted thousands to motor down to the Himalayan foothill towns of Shimla, Nainital and Mussoori, officials said.

Dozens of national leaders, bureaucrats and cabinet ministers are on official tours to Europe to beat the New Delhi scorcher.

Weather department officials adding gloom said the annual monsoon rains have stalled on their northward path after sweeping southern Kerala state.

The rains, which drench the subcontinent from June to September and are key to the agriculture-dependent economy, normally progress steadily north allowing farmers to sow.

The central Reserve Bank of India, meanwhile, rejected worries of a slide in economic growth due to the blistering heat and said plentiful rains even if late could offset damage already done.

"There is no change in monetary policy stance as such," said bank deputy chief Shyamala Gopinath, adding that the bank would not revise its projection of annual economic growth of seven percent.

source: http://www.terradaily.com/2005/050617124350.254yfquy.html 17jun2005