How India – and Southasia – fails to count and deal with heat deaths

Reporting for this story was supported by the DataLEADS as part of the Centre for Investigative Journalism’s Open Climate Reporting Initiative.

ON 30 APRIL 2024, a day before International Workers Day, Vijesh Kaniyeri, a 41-year-old building painter from Kozhikode district in the Indian state of Kerala, fainted while washing up for lunch. “His body temperature had become too high,” Pushpa T, his sister-in-law, said. “He was put on a ventilator at the hospital but never regained consciousness.” Kaniyeri died two days later.

With temperatures hovering at over 40 degrees Celsius in parts of the state at the time, Kerala had issued an official heatwave alert on 29 April, a day before Kaniyeri collapsed. It issued an orange alert, its second most severe alert category, for areas of Palakkad district; and a yellow alert, indicating heat tolerable for the general population but suggesting caution for the vulnerable, for Alappuzha, Thrissur and Kozhikode districts. The administration urged people in these areas to avoid outdoor work between 11 am and 3 pm. It also stressed the need for vigilance against heat stroke and listed precautions, such as ample hydration, to mitigate health risks.