West India authorities struggle to deal with oppressive heat

NEW DELHI — Authorities in a parched western Indian state sprinkled water in the streets and awaited the arrival of a special water train on Saturday, two days after temperatures reached a record-high 124 degrees Fahrenheit.

Several hospitals in the desert state of Rajasthan, which has been hit worst by a heat wave that has spread to many parts of India, have set aside beds to treat heatstroke victims. Television video Saturday showed heatstroke patients being wheeled in on stretchers, with paramedics covering them with ice packs and pouring water on them.

The main summer months in India — April, May and June — are always excruciatingly hot across most of the country, before monsoon rains bring cooler temperatures.

In Rajasthan on Saturday, municipal workers sprinkled water in residential areas of the city of Bikaner and a train filled with 660,000 gallons of water headed toward the town of Bhilwara.

Indian media reported 16 deaths in Rajasthan, where nearly 17,000 villages in 19 of 33 districts were facing water shortages.

The India Meteorological Department said that maximum temperatures will likely fall by four to six degrees Fahrenheit in Rajasthan next week. But no significant change is expected in northern India.

The blistering heat also is sweeping across large parts of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, with six deaths reported there in the past month.

On Thursday, the city of Philodi in Rajasthan state suffered through the country’s highest recorded temperature — 124 degrees Fahrenheit.

Heatstroke has claimed 109 lives in southern Andhra Pradesh state.

MAHESH KUMAR A./THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A laborer covers himself with a cloth to protect from the sun as he pulls a rickshaw carrying wooden logs on a hot summer afternoon Friday in Hyderabad, India.