Soaring mercury sparks widespread concerns in India

Prolonged heatwave prompts calls to change work and school hours, among other moves

Debarshi Dasgupta India Correspondent In New Delhi Rohini Mohan India Correspondent In Bangalore Mr Prem Kumar showed his grubby right palm, revealing a lesion under his ring finger.

It is an injury the 22-year-old worker suffered at a construction site in Noida in northern India, which has been experiencing a prolonged heatwave along with many other parts of the country.

“My hands burn and they hurt," he said. His work involves using bare hands to handle iron rods that heat up in high outdoor temperatures. “The heat has just started,” added a worried Mr Kumar on Monday, when the maximum temperature hovered close to 40 deg C.

Summer this year has made an early brutal start in India.

April ended up as the third warmest for the entire country since it began keeping records in 1901. The heat in March was record-breaking as well - it was India's hottest in 122 years.

The blistering heat continues across much of India, causing heat stroke-related deaths, damaging crops and straining energy supplies as power demand soars along with the mercury.

Maximum temperatures on Sunday hovered between 43 deg Cand 47 deg C in the north-western and central parts of India.

Data from the European Space Agency shows land surface temperatures - the radiative skin temperature of the land derived from solar radiation - exceeding 60 deg C in several areas of India on April 29.