India to launch heat wave programs in vulnerable cities

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian officials are launching a program to protect people from extreme heat in two high-risk regions, after a devastating heat wave killed at least 2,500 people across the country last year.

With climate change bringing higher temperatures, the country and its 1.25 billion people are bracing for even more challenging summers that will dry up forests, destroy crops, wipe out farm animals and kill hundreds if not thousands of people if they are not prepared.

The cities involved in the program will now spend months preparing for summer by educating children about heat risk, stocking hospitals with ice packs and extra water, and training medical workers to identify heat stress, dehydration and heat stroke.

Many of those killed across the country last year, including more than 1,700 in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, were day laborers, construction workers and farmers so poor they could not take a day off despite the heat.