India’s extreme heatwave leaves outdoor workers sweltering – as its sends the price of lemons through the roof
- The heatwave burning up large swathes of India began last month in the north of the country, but has now engulfed the south and other regions too
- Landfills are on fire, children are being sent home from school, the price of lemons has more than tripled – and one state has been hit with a beer shortage
Daily life has become hellish. Long and painful power cuts are now the norm thanks to soaring electricity demand, causing factory machinery to grind to a halt and frozen food to thaw out in grocery store fridges.
In northern India, forest fires are raging on wooded hills as dried pine needles spontaneously combust. The heat is also causing taps to run dry, leaving outdoor workers – who have little to no protection from the elements – to suffer most.
Some like Munazir Khan, who sells fruit from a stall in the New Friends Colony area of the Indian capital, dunk towels into buckets of water and wrap them around their heads in an attempt to stave off the heat.
“It’s great for a couple of minutes when it cools you off but it dries in no time and then you are back to square one,” Khan said. He keeps a tarpaulin stretched over his fruit to try to protect it, but nothing can stay fresh for long in these temperatures.
The heatwave burning up large swathes of India began last month in the northern states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, and capital New Delhi, but has now engulfed much of the south and other regions too. This year, India recorded its hottest March since records began in 1901 and temperatures have been several degrees above normal ever since.
Schools in some states such as Odisha, where temperatures have hovered around 43 degrees for weeks, have closed. “I am relieved. My son came home dehydrated from the bus and nauseous. It’s too much for a young body to take,” a mother in the east Indian state told NDTV news channel.