Kerala has officially confirmed two deaths due to heatstroke in 2024. There were several unconfirmed reports of deaths due to heatstroke in the State, linked to high temperatures driven by climate change.
The previous lone officially confirmed death was in 2016, the year when the State experienced one of the worst droughts in its history due to the impact of El Niño. According to the data available with the government, five deaths were initially reported in the State this year due to sunstroke. The State confirmed two deaths due to heatstroke in Palakkad — a 90-year-old woman at Elappully and a 65-year-old man at Kuthannoor.
Though a death each was reported from Kozhikode, Malappuram, and Ernakulam with suspected symptoms of sunstroke, the post-mortem examination reports did not confirm them. Similarly, three people each in Palakkad and Kozhikode collapsed and died on the polling day on April 26. In these cases too, there was no confirmation that they were linked to a change in temperature.
Financial aid
Only for confirmed sunstroke deaths, financial assistance would be given from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), said Sekhar L. Kuriakose, Member Secretary, Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA). The State declared heatwave, sunstroke and sunburn as ‘State-specific disasters’ making the victims eligible for distress relief from the SDRF in 2019.
According to India Meteorological Department (IMD) sources, this is the first time in the history of the State that it witnessed heatwave with Palakkad realising the heatwave criteria on April 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 this year. Palakkad also reported more than 40°C on 16 days from April 1 to May 16. Though Thrissur, Alappuzha, Punalur in Kollam and Thiruvananthapurm satisfied the temperature criteria for heatwave — the maximum temperature should be 40°C or more (for plane lands) and the departure from normal should be 4.5°C from normal — the variation was not recorded on two consecutive days as stipulated by the IMD for declaring the heatwave. It is believed that this year also, the El Nino conditions fuelled the record temperatures in the State.
