Poor, elderly at risk as heat wave goes on

Eating onions, lying in the shade and splashing into rivers, Indians were doing whatever they could on Thursday to stay cool during a brutal heat wave that has killed more than 1,400 in the past month.

Meteorological officials said the heat would probably last several more days - scorching crops, killing wildlife and endangering anyone laboring outdoors.

Officials warned people to stay out of the sun, cover their heads and drink plenty of water, but poverty forces many Indians to work despite the risks.

"Either we have to work, putting our lives under threat, or we go without food," farmer Narasimha said in the badly hit Nalgonda district of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. "But we stop work when it becomes unbearable."

In Nizamabad, 150 km north of the state capital of Hyderabad, construction workers were also still laboring.

"If I don't work due to the heat, how will my family survive?" said Mahalakshmi, who earns a daily wage of about $3.10.

Most of the 1,412 heat-related deaths so far have occurred in Andhra Pradesh and neighboring Telangana, where temperatures have soared up to 47 C.

Doctors' leave has been canceled to help cope with the sick patients.

May and June are India's hottest months, with temperatures regularly pushing above 40 C. But meteorologists say the number of days when temperatures approach 45 C has increased in the past 15 years.

The elderly and the poor are among the most vulnerable, with many living in slums or farm huts with no access to air conditioners or, sometimes, even shade-giving trees.

Those who could were heeding the government's advice to avoid going outdoors.

"With so many people dying due to the heat, we are locking the children inside," teacher Satyamurthy said in Khammam, which registered 48 C on Saturday, its highest temperature for 67 years.

Cooling monsoon rains are expected to arrive next week in the southern state of Kerala and gradually advance north in coming weeks.

Until then, volunteers are handing out pouches of salted buttermilk or raw onions - both thought to be hydrating. People were using handkerchiefs and scarves to block searing winds and stifling air from their faces.

Newspapers devoted full pages to covering the heat wave and its effects, with headlines saying, "Homeless bake in tin shelters" and "Birds and animals drop dead."

AP - Reuters