According to the state’s climate commission, Kolkata has endured weeks of punishing temperature, peaking at 43 degrees Fahrenheit for the hottest April evening since 1954.
The typically buzzing colonial-era capital’s roads have been almost deserted in the mornings as its 15 million residents try their hardest to stay away from the sun.
However, even dogs and cats with owners who have a home have been at risk of developing diseases due to the heat, Das claiming that there has been a rise in dehydration-related diseases in city-to-pets.
When the heat wave arrived, Sriparna Bose, the tutor, reported that her two cats had withdrawn and become gloomy in a way unlike before.
” They are refusing food”, she said. ” They hide in dark, cold corners of the room and wo n’t come out”.
The condition is worse for the 70, 000 errant dogs that are frequently fed and looked after by local residents, according to estimates from provincial authorities who live on city streets.
Some people spend the time sheltered from the sun under parked vehicles, while a select few are helped to cool off by sympathetic people.
Because the streets are so hot, Gurshaan Kohli of the local animal welfare organization Humanimal Foundation, said,” They are finding it difficult to have on their sweet hands.”
” Ratings of dogs and cats have died” yet though he and his associates had rushed them to hospitals for cure, he added.