Parts of India ban daytime cooking as hundreds die of heat [View all]
Source: Associated Press
Parts of India ban daytime cooking as hundreds die of heat
Nirmala George and Indrajit Singh, Associated Press
Updated 9:38 pm, Friday, April 29, 2016
PATNA, India (AP) — With sizzling temperatures claiming more than 300 lives this month in India, officials said they were banning daytime cooking in some parts of the drought-stricken country in a bid to prevent accidental fires that have killed nearly 80 more people.
The eastern state of Bihar this week took the unprecedented step of forbidding any cooking between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., after accidental fires exacerbated by dry, hot and windy weather swept through shantytowns and thatched-roof houses in villages and killed 79 people. They included 10 children and five adults killed in a fire sparked during a Hindu prayer ceremony in Bihar's Aurangabad district last week. People were instead told to cook to night.
Hoping to prevent more fires, officials have also barred burning spent crops or holding religious fire rituals. Anyone defying the ban risks up to a year in jail.
"We call this the fire season in Bihar," Vyas, a state disaster management official who goes by one name, said Friday. "Strong, westerly winds stoke fires which spread easily and cause great damage."
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/science/article/India-s-sizzling-heat-wave-claims-more-than-300-7383078.php
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