Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr. Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday informed the Lok Sabha that as many as 2,037 people were killed in eight States due to heat wave this year. Of them, as many 1910 deaths were reported from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana States alone.
Dr. Harsh Vardhan said every year India experiences severe heat waves in summer, but in 2015, casualties were abnormally high. Most of the deaths were concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. A total of 1,369 deaths due to heat wave/sun stroke were reported in Andhra Pradesh, 541 in Telangana, 67 in Odisha, 22 in Uttar Pradesh, 13 in West Bengal, 10 in Gujarat, 10 in Madhya Pradesh and five causalities were reported in Delhi.
All India mean temperature has risen nearly around 0.60 C over the last 110 years in line with the rising temperature across the globe. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report (2014) highlights that mean surface temperature of the globe has risen by 0.850 ± 0.180 C. Using daily maximum temperature data of 103 stations uniformly distributed over the country for the period 1961-2010 from Indian main land during the hot weather season (March to July), it was observed that many areas of the country (north, northwest, central and northeast Peninsula) have experienced more than eight (8) Heat Wave days on an average per season, said the Union Minister adding that 2001-2010 happened to be the warmest decade for the country as well as for the globe.
“Upon prediction of the heat wave conditions by the ESSO-IMD, various State Governments have a system of giving wide publicity of Dos and Don’ts through advertisements in Print and audio-visual media and opening up of drinking water camps at identified places in rural and urban areas to mitigate the impact of heat waves. The schedule of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme workers is adjusted to avoid exposure to extreme hot weather duration periods,” according to Dr. Harsh Vardhan. (INN)