India’s heatwave causes death, drought and despair

Wiping sweat from his brow in the stifling heat, Baljit Das, leans on a pneumatic drill at his new job on a building site in the city.

Until a few weeks ago he was a farmer in the north Indian state of Bihar but Mr Das, 42, does not know when he will see his land again. Like tens of thousands of others he has fled barren fields for the state capital Patna in search of work and water as India buckles under a deadly heatwave that has suffocated the country for weeks.

While it is frequently hot in much of India, this is no ordinary heatwave or drought.

“This is longest dry spell I have ever known,” said Mr Das. “Our farmlands have cracked.…


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