Kerala sizzles as mercury crosses 40C

IANS/ThiruvananthapuramWith the sun blazing down like never before, Kerala has become a furnace of sorts. The mercury has been rising and has already crossed 40 degrees Celsius in Palakkad district.The average temperature in some districts of the state has gone up by over two degrees above the average for this time of year; Punalur recorded 38 degrees Celsius. The state government has issued instructions that manual labourers should be given a break in the afternoon, when the heat is at its height.Alappuzha district recorded the lowest temperature among the 14 districts of the state - at 33 degrees. “This is a warning sign for all of us. If we do not take note of this ‘test dose’ that nature is administering, we will face bad times. The need of the hour is to take the environment seriously and initiate measures to protect it,” Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said. Chandy was referring to media reports of people in the state suffering sun strokes. What began as a few isolated cases kept mounting by the day, and Friday saw about a dozen fresh cases of sunstroke. “There has been a shortage of rain, with just isolated showers. It is natural that temperature would rise. We expect, however, that the situation will change towards the end of the month, and more rain is expected next month,” said director of the state office of the India Meteorological Department, K Santhosh. With no rain, water levels in the state’s dams are receding. The state is heavily dependent on dams for water and electricity, and delayed rain could cause enormous problems. “In the neighbouring states, there are power cuts for very long hours. All what we have here is a power outage of just one hour, with 30 minutes duration each in the morning and the night. The power situation is such that there should be a power outage for six hours, but we are not going to do it as it would bring untold misery to our people,” Power Minister Aryadan Mohamed said. Just as the heat hit headlines, the media pointed to the largesse offered by state Agriculture Minister K P Mohanan, who granted the state’s 141 legislators brand new LCD TVs each as a Vishu (new year, according to local calendar) gift.Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan said on Friday that he had handed back the TV, with a note to the minister that this was not the appropriate time for such a gift, given the drought scenario. Chief Minister Chandy, who was away for two days in the United Arab Emirates, returned yesterday to make an on-the-spot assessment of relief works for the drought-affected at Pathanamthitta district. Chandy will also travel to other district headquarters in the coming days. Meanwhile, a fisherman who had returned to the shore and lay tired on the beach at Kollam said: “This heat is killing. I have been a fisherman for two decades, but I have never before experienced this. We can’t stay in the sea for long.”l The mercury crossed 41 degrees in at least five towns in the eastern state of Odisha yesterday with the district headquarters town of Angul recording 41.9 degrees, the day’s highest in the state, officials said.The other towns which saw high temperatures include Baripada, the district headquarters of Mayurbhanj; Sambalpur and Sonepur and Titilagarh. They recorded 41.5, 41.2, 41.6 and 41.5 degree Celsius respectively.Some costal towns such as Puri and Gopalpur, however, remained cool, recording a maximum temperature of 33.5 and 31.0 degree respectively.The maximum temperature recorded in the state capital Bhubaneswar was 40.4 degrees, an official of the Bhubaneswar Meteorological Centre said.The weather will remain the same in many parts of the state, although rain or thundershowers may occur in parts of north Odisha during the next 24 hours, he said.