Parts of India ban daytime cooking as hundreds die of heat

[Judi Lynn]

20. Some local papers claim the ban concerns the fires, with wind, have burned down thatched houses,

and killed people and animals.

Saturday, April 16, 2016 3:41:42 PM (IST)

Summer fires force Bihar village diktat on no cooking stoves

Patna, Apr 16 (IANS): The fear of devastating fires during the scorching summer in Bihar has led people in some villages to ban the use of stoves durimg daytime to cook food. Violators would be slapped with shoes and would have to pay a fine, officials on Saturday said.

Fire incidents are common during the hot summer months in rural Bihar, where people are vulnerable as most still live in thatched homes.

Officials said that fire incidents have been on the rise due to a heat wave with temperatures as high as 42 degrees Celsius over the last 10 days.

Fear of sweeping fires is such that people in over a dozen villages in Bagaha in West Champaran district, sounded the drum (dugdugi) to warn villagers not to light firewood or kerosene stoves to cook food after 9 a.m. to minimise the chance of fire incidents, a district official said.

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