MUMBAI, India - Bride Sapna Walde, from Shindurwapa village in the Gondia district, collapsed and died of heat exhaustion, whilst her husband-to-be Satyavan Ghedan from Vaizapur village in Chandrapur, also died. Another couple, due to be married, have also died in the soaring temperatures.A heat wave has gripped the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, claiming
130 lives in the last four days including the two brides and two grooms who succumbed to the intense heat during mass marriage ceremonies.
The coal-yielding city of Chandrapur in eastern Vidarbha was recorded as the hottest area in the region at 48.3C; the Gandhian district of Wardha recorded 48C; whilst Nagpur had a high of 47.2C on May 25.
temperatureso far this summer.
- Kishor Tiwari, president of a farmer's organisation called Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, told Gulf News from Nagpur, that hospitals in the region are flooded with sunstroke patients.
- "Even though the government has opened air-conditioned emergency wards, farmers in distant places are unable to travel to the hospitals in the heat. Even birds and animals are dying," he said.
- He added that the water crisis in the region is adding fuel to the scorching heat as the area is already reeling under drought and the state administration has shown its inability to tackle the crisis.
- To describe how unbearable the conditions were, he said: "There was a full moon yesterday night but it seemed as though the sun was shining since the temperature hovered at 42C."
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