Agencies/New Delhi

India’s Meteorological Department has sounded a red alert for several states as a severe heatwave claimed over 300 lives over the past 10 days across India.
The department said heatwave conditions would continue for the next three days in large swathes of northern India, including the national capital New Delhi, along with the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Temperatures in these regions ranged between 42 and 48 degrees centigrade yesterday.
At least 100 people had died and there was a water shortage in several districts across Andhra Pradesh, the state’s Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said.
Naidu appealed to people not to venture out of their homes or workplaces during the hottest hours between 11am and 4pm.
In neighbouring Telangana state, the heat had claimed 130 lives in the past 10 days, disaster management commissioner Bhambal Ram Meena said.
The highest maximum temperature of 46 degree was recorded at Khammam, Nalgonda and Ramagundam in Telangana. The temperature in Hanamkonda and Nizamabad was 45.
In Andhra Pradesh, the south coastal Andhra region continued to reel under severe heatwave. The highest maximum temperature of 47 degree was recorded at Machilipatnam and Vijayawada.
The Hyderabad Meteorological Centre has warned that the heatwave will continue for two more days. It attributed the heat to the dry winds blowing from northwesterly direction.
The heatwave has hit normal life in all 10 districts of Telangana and in south coastal region of Andhra Pradesh for the last one week.
Streets in the towns wore a near deserted look as people are remaining indoors to escape the scorching sun. In Hyderabad, thin traffic was seen on usually busy roads.
A total of 35 heatwave-related deaths had been reported from the national capital and its outskirts while 23 were reported from the eastern state of Odisha and one from West Bengal, officials said.
However, the minimum temperature across the Kashmir Valley dropped yesterday following overnight rain.
“The minimum temperature was 10.7 degrees in Srinagar while it was 5.6 in Pahalgam, four degrees Gulmarg and Kargil, 5.6 in Leh, and 29.3 in Jammu city,” a weather official said in Srinagar.
“The minimum temperature in Katra town was 20.7, 14.4 in Batote, 11.2 in Bannihal and 9.4 degrees in Bhaderwah town of Jammu region.
“We are expecting rain across the Valley during the next 24 hours, but it would be light to moderate.”
He said the minimum temperature was two degrees below normal in the Gulmarg ski resort and was expected to dip further because of expected rain and cloud cover during the day.
Rain and inclement weather, including hailstorm and thunder squalls, have been worrying local farmers and fruit growers in Kashmir this season.
Inclement weather often delays transplantation of paddy crop besides damaging it through wind and hailstorm.
Tender fruit buds are too delicate to withstand the vagaries of weather and suffer heavily if weather remains inclement during the budding season.