Daytime cooking out as heatwave kills 300

DAYTIME cooking has been banned in some parts of India because accidental fires have killed more than 80 people.

Sizzling temperatures have claimed more than 300 lives last month.

The eastern state of Bihar this week took the unprecedented step of forbidding any cooking from 9am to 6pm, after accidental fires exacerbated by dry, hot and windy weather swept through shantytowns and thatched-roof houses in villages and killed 79 people. They included 10 children and five adults killed in a fire sparked during a Hindu prayer ceremony in Bihar’s Aurangabad district last week.

People were instead told to cook to night. Hoping to prevent more fires, officials have also barred burning spent crops or holding religious fire rituals. Anyone defying the ban risks up to a year in jail.

“We call this the fire season in Bihar,” Vyas, a state disaster management official who goes by one name, said. “Strong, westerly winds stoke fires which spread easily and cause great damage.”

Much of India is reeling under a week-long heatwave and severe drought conditions that have decimated crops, killed livestock and left at least 330 million Indians without enough water for their daily needs.

Rivers, lakes and dams have dried up in parts of the western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat and groundwater reservoirs are at just 22 per cent capacity.