Delhi recorded its second hottest April in 72 years with a monthly average maximum temperature of 40.2 degrees Celsius even as parts of the country are sweltering in intense heatwaves. The furnace-like temperatures have led to hours-long blackouts; Some 42 passenger trains have been cancelled across India to allow faster movement of coal carriages to tackle critically low stocks at power plants in the middle of blackouts and outages in many states; The sprawling, eight room house of the Yadav family in Imaliya Purva, a village on the outskirts of Lucknow, is empty - a stark, haunting, and devastating contrast from just a year ago when the second wave of the Covid pandemic killed eight members of the joint family within 24 days and other top stories.
