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Heat wave toll rises to 560

A merciless sun kept people weary and doctors busy in most states as the national toll rose to 560 on Saturday, with 146 more sunstroke deaths reported during the past 24 hours.

Of this, Orissa alone accounted for 300 casualties as the temperature continued to hover between 40 to 50 degrees in the state.

Titlagarh in Bolangir district in western Orissa has recorded an unprecedented 50 degrees Celsius for the past two days. As many as 150 deaths have occurred in western Orissa with 68 deaths in Sambalpur.

Hospitals and small nursing homes were flooded with patients complaining of sunstroke. The Met office has predicted rain tomorrow in the state.

In Rajasthan, 21 more people succumbed to the heat's spell, taking the toll in the state to 209.

A maximum of 55 death have been reported from the Alwar district, followed by 32 in the Kota division, 26 in the Jaipur district, 18 in the Dholpur district, nine in Bharatpur, seven each in Jodhpur, Pali, Sikar districts, six each in Barmer and Jalore, five in Hanumangarh, four in Bhilwara, three each in Ajmer, Udaipur, Sawai Madhopur, Tonk, Bikaner, Jhunjhunu and Dausa, two each in Ganganagar and Banswara and one each in Karauli and Rajsamand districts. Eight people, including a prisoner and a policeman, also died in Jaipur.

Jhalawar in Kota division recorded a maximum temperature of 47 degrees. Bharatpur recorded 46, Kota, Barmer, Bikaner, Churu and Ganganagar 45, Sawai Madhopur and Jaisalmer 44 and Jaipur 43.

The blazing sun continued to play havoc with normal life in most parts of the north-west plains, Orissa, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh where the maximum temperatures hovered above 45 degrees Celsius.

Orissa accounted for 38 deaths, Uttar Pradesh 12, six in Bihar and three in West Bengal.

The Orissa government held a high-level meeting on Friday to review the situation. Sambalpur was the worst hit, followed by 29 in Bolangir, 22 in Dhenkanal, 18 in Cuttack, 13 in Khurda, and 22 in Bhubaneswar. Ten people each have died in Sundargarh, Beragarh, Angul and Sonepur districts.

Six people, including three children, died of sun stroke at Hajipur in Bihar, pushing the toll in the state up to 30.

In Midnapore district of West Bengal, three presiding officers of the Sadar and Jhargram sub-divisions and a police inspector died of cardiac arrest caused by excessive heat.

The severe heat wave conditions continued to prevail over the south coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh where Rajamundry recorded the maximum temperature of 47.5 degrees Celsius, followed by Vijayawada at 46.7 degrees Celsius.

In Uttar Pradesh, 12 people, including five tourists from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Nepal, died of sunstroke in Agra on Thursday-Friday. Two British nationals are being treated in hospital.

Three patients died in the Agra mental hospital while four more people died in different parts of the city which recorded a maximum temperature of 48.5 degrees Celsius.

In Delhi and other parts of north India, a dip of two to three degrees in the maximum temperature abated the severe heat wave. The maximum temperature in Delhi was 44.6 degrees Celsius.

The Met department said easterly winds in lower levels and a feeble western disturbance, had led to a lowering of temperature in Gujarat, Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, and also the extreme southern parts of Rajasthan.

''The area of the country under the grip of the heat wave is now much less,'' the IMD reported. However, in the absence of any weather disturbance, no significant change in the current heat wave scenario is expected in the next 48 hours, the department added.

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