Schools have been ordered to shut down for a week by authorities in parts of India where sweltering temperatures of more than 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) have been recorded.
Tripura, a state in the northeast and West Bengal a state in the east, have ordered schools to shut this week, as temperatures rose more than 5 Celsius above normal, state governments said.
G K Das, an official at the West Bengal weather office said Kolkata recorded temperatures of 40C (104F) on April 13 and and 41C (105.8F) on April 14, more than 5 degrees above normal for the time of year.
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India’s national weather office said in February that the country is likely to experience heat waves between March and May after average maximum temperature in February hit 29.54C 85.1F) across India, the highest since 1901, when the IMD started keeping weather records.
Scientists have linked the early onset of an intense summer to climate change, and say more than a billion people in India and neighbouring Pakistan are in some way vulnerable to the extreme heat.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
