Hyderabad: Before the sudden rains on Tuesday (May 26) night, Telangana had been reeling under severe heat conditions over the last several weeks. The state government has said that 19 people were killed during the heat wave, but news reports suggest that number is likely to be higher. Over the last week, 16 districts have recorded temperatures above 46 degrees Celsius.The Telangana State Development Planning Society (TSDPS), which monitors the state’s weather stations, and the Indian Meteorological Department’s reports have noted the extreme heat the state has witnessed. The IMD issued a heatwave warning in 16 districts on Tuesday, but the TSDPS did not release its bulletin citing technical issues.Telangana government document on heatwave deaths until May 25.Daily-wage earners, farmers lost their livesAhmed Arif, a 50-year-old autorickshaw driver, was found dead in the driving seat of his vehicle in Hyderabad’s Medchal on Monday (May 25). Arif had stopped to sleep in his auto around noon, unable to take the heat, Eenadu has reported. When he did not wake up even in the evening, people nearby tried to wake him, but he had passed away.Ankati Mallavva, a 63-year-old national rural employment guarantee (now Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission) programme worker, collapsed at a worksite and was declared dead on being taken to a nearby government hospital last week. She was among a group of workers who had digitally marked their attendance and begun their assigned task of digging trenches in a reserve forest near Vemulakurthi village of Ibrahimpatnam mandal in Jagtial district.In Kojan Kothur village in the same mandal two days later, 42-year-old construction worker Andra Srinivasulu returned home, complaining of feeling unwell, after working in a neighbouring village. He died in a hospital shortly afterwards.In addition to daily-wage earners, farmers who were exposed to the sun and heat at markets also suffered a great deal. The severe heat coincided with the arrival of paddy at government procurement centres, where farmers can avail of the minimum support price. However, the process was hit by delays in weighing produce, non-availability of lorries to shift stocks to godowns, delays in unloading at rice mills and lack of adequate storage capacity at godowns. Lakhs of bags were piled up at procurement centres – and this meant farmers were kept waiting too, despite the scorching heat.Thirty-nine-year-old Nelamancha Yellender Reddy was one such farmer. He collapsed on Monday while getting his crop weighed at a government procurement centre in Rangaraigudem village of Station Ghanpur mandal in Jangaon district. He was taken to a hospital, but could not be saved. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.Three days earlier, 55-year-old Venkatapuram Shankaraiah passed away, falling on the paddy that he had brought to a centre in Chinna Ghanpur village of Kolcharam mandal in Medak district. He had shifted the stock to the centre 20 days ago. On being told by the authorities that they would weigh the crop on May 22, he reached the centre at 5 AM. The hamalis (carriers) tried in vain to revive him when he collapsed on a heap of paddy, his family members said, but he had passed.Sixty-eight-year-old Mohammed Nazeeruddin, a tenant farmer, also collapsed and died at a procurement centre, in Nellibanda village, Nakrekal mandal of Nalgonda district earlier this month. He was removing the tarpaulin cover on the paddy crop that he had harvested two days ago to see if it had soaked in the previous night’s rain. His family members said he worked and travelled in the sun for four days to hire a crop cutting machine. His wife had recently passed away after an illness.Whose death counts?While the state’s revenue department has officially noted 19 heatwave deaths so far, undercounting of heat-related deaths is a recurring issue in India. Numbers provided by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data on deaths due to heat often far surpass numbers put out by state governments. As The New Indian Express has reported, this is because the NCRB data comes from police records, and any death reported as heat-related is included in this count. Even the deaths counted as heat-related ones in this situation can be an underestimate, because doctors often list only the immediate cause of death and do not recognise the role of heat as a trigger causing deaths. The Telangana state government, on the other hand, requires formal medical certification and potentially even a post-mortem report confirming heat stroke to be the primary cause of death.This discrepancy has been visible in Telangana. For instance, the recently released NCRB data for 2024 says there were 116 heat-related deaths in the state that year, but the TSDPS counted only ten deaths for the same period.A senior government official, requesting anonymity, told The Wire that the state government only records sunstroke deaths reported by its medical and health department. A three-member committee investigated reports of the district medical and health officers, and submitted recommendations to the collectors, who were the certifying authority. It was a lengthy process involving post-mortem examination of bodies and examination of witnesses.Hot politicsBecause of the procurement delays and the deaths of some farmers at procurement centres, the government’s role too has come under question. The Bharat Rashtra Samiti and the BJP have held the state government responsible for farmers’ plight. The BJP even organised a ‘Rytu Gosa’ (farmers plight) yatra to procurement centres on Monday and Tuesday. BRS working president K.T. Ramana Rao claimed procurement was smooth during his party’s rule.Civil supplies minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said the government had already purchased 54 lakh tonnes of paddy at 8,575 procurement centres. The Union government, however, fixed a ceiling of 52 lakh tonnes for payment of MSP. The minister said that the state government was willing to purchase up to 75 lakh tonnes with its own funds if the Union government did not hike the ceiling.Reddy admitted to a delay in procurement, saying that a major chunk of hamalis who work at procurement centres come from West Bengal, and had returned to their villages ahead of the assembly elections in the state. Many of them, he said, had not returned.N. Rahul is an independent journalist.