With three suspected sunstroke deaths being reported in Kerala due to rise in mercury levels, the state government has issued a sunstroke alert for the next two days.
On Sunday, the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) issued a sunstroke alert for March 25 and 26 in 11 districts, warning people not to go under the sun in the afternoon due to rise in temperatures.
“Between March 25 and 26, temperature is likely to rise by 3-4 degrees in Kollam, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam and Thrissur. In Thiruvananthapuram, Pathanamthitta, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Malappuram and Kannur, temperature is set to rise by 2-3 degree Celsius,” the KSDMA circular read.
“We have had over 50 cases of sunburns within this week and a few cases of sunstroke due to the extreme heat. This was another reason to issue the alert,” Fahadh Masook, a hazard analyst with the KSDMA told TNM. Besides this, 3 suspected cases of sunstroke deaths were also reported, which are yet to be confirmed by the Health Department, Fahadh added.
Karunakaran (42), a state government employee from Parasala in the southern suburb of the state capital, fainted while working in his paddy field on Sunday morning.
He was rushed to a local hospital where he was declared dead. The body was later shifted to the state-run Medical College for postmortem. After preliminary examination, the doctors suspected it to be a case of sunstroke as there were burn marks on the deceased's shoulders.
In Kannur, an elderly person named Narayanan suffered sun burns and fell unconscious. He was later declared dead. A third case was reported from Maramon in Pathanamthitta district where a 60-year-old hotel employee named Shahjahan was found dead on the roadside.
In Punalur in Kollam district, while campaigning for Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) candidate N.K. Premachandran, RSP leader Nasar Khan fell unconscious and had to be rushed to a hospital. His condition is stated to be stable.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast for the coming two days, the mercury in 11 out of the 14 districts of the state is expected to rise by 2 to 3 degree Celsius above normal for this time of the season.
Since the beginning of March, around 100 people have suffered sunstroke in the state, the Health Department pointed out. The department has also issued an advisory for people on how to tackle the heat.
(With inputs from IANS)