HYDERABAD: The heat wave in Telangana has raised the death toll to 234, with 15 more deaths reported in the last two days as per officials. Nalgonda district remains the worst-hit with the highest number of deaths at 76 and Mahabubnagar comes second at 40. State Disaster Management department said fatalities were reported from all districts except Hyderabad. Hanamkonda was the hottest place with maximum temperature of 42.1 degrees.
Families of the deceased will be compensated with Rs 50,000 from the government. There was an age restriction until recently where families of victims above 65 years were not eligible for compensation. However, rains in several places in Telangana gave the people much needed respite, bringing down the temperature.
Temperature fell down 40 degrees Celsius, for the time in over a month. Places recorded one to five cm rainfall. The met department has forecast light to moderate rain/thunderstorms, also warning squalls/hail at isolated places. The unseasonal rains are the result of upper air trough which runs from Vidarbha to extreme south peninsula across Telangana. Few places in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh also received rains. The maximum temperature in south coastal Andhra was below 40 degrees. However, heat wave conditions continued in parts of Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh. The highest temperature of 42.2 degrees was recorded in Anantapur.
