Record temperatures in India linked to thousands of heatstrokes

The capital city of New Delhi recorded what may be its highest-ever temperature of 126 degrees on Wednesday. The spring has been unseasonably warm. Over 16,000 people in India experienced heat stroke, and 60 people have died due to the excessive heat since March 1, according to government data reported by Indian news website Mint.

What’s it like at the ground level over there? Bombay resident Nidhi Puri told WORLD that India skipped spring this year without giving people time to adjust to the warmer weather. She works in a factory where productivity has gone down. Workers are falling ill with heatstroke, nausea, and headaches from the extreme heat, she said. “It’s worse for the daily wage earners who work in a construction site or roads because it’s impossible to work in this kind of heat,” Puri said.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report in The Sift about an Indian heatwave that led to 150 deaths last year.