Record hot sun in India, flying birds must also fall to the ground

Rescuers in Gujarat (western India) find birds falling from the sky every day due to exhaustion and dehydration as intense heatwave continues for a third month, mercury levels rise yet again in this week.

A care worker in Ahemdabad gives a parakeet a multivitamin after finding it dehydrated from the heat wave.

In the western state of Gujarat, where temperatures have hovered above 40 degrees Celsius for weeks now and can reach 46 degrees Celsius, rescuers here encounter birds falling from the sky every day. Until now, the impact of extreme heat on animals has not been emphasized.

According to rescuers working at an animal hospital run by the non-profit Jivdaya Charity Trust in Gujarat, the animals' conditions during this year's heat season have deteriorated significantly.

A hospital curator feeds an Indian flying fox bat at the Jivdaya Charity Foundation in Ahmedabad, May 3, 2022.

Manoj Bhavsar, who works closely with the trust and has been rescuing birds for more than a decade, told Reuters: 'The number of birds in need of rescue that we have witnessed has increased. ten%. Activists picked up the birds and took them to a hospital run by the trust for immediate care. They are pumped into their mouths with a syringe and given vitamin tablets."

Veterinarian medicates an eagle in Ahmedabad.

Extreme heat waves (aka heat waves) have started much earlier in India and Pakistan this year, with the first wave recorded in early March. Although the shift in heatwave patterns is increasingly intense and prolonged for a number of reasons, the underlying cause of this extreme weather event is climate change.