Cold Kills 136 in Indian sub-continent

This just in from REDDIT...Now this is a story about the cold, unlike the nonsense outlined here


Winter chill kills 80 in northern India
RANCHI, India (Reuters) - Cold weather across northern and eastern India has killed at least 80 people in the past week, forcing authorities to close schools and colleges and deliver firewood to the homeless, officials said on Friday.

Bangladesh said on Thursday at least 56 people, mostly beggars and homeless, had died during the same cold snap this week.

In India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh 34 people have died as night time temperatures plummeted to close to freezing, making life a misery for tens of thousands of people who live on the streets with few ways of keeping warm.

On Friday morning, the minimum temperature in the capital, New Delhi, fell to 4 degrees Celsius, the lowest of the winter.

In Bihar, thousands of homeless people crowded around bonfires as temperatures hovered around 6 degrees Celsius. At least 35 people have died in the impoverished state in the last seven days.

"For the next one week, all educational institutions will remain closed as the cold has become unbearable for many," Madan Mohan Jha, Bihar's human resource development secretary said by phone from Patna, the state capital.

In neighbouring Jharkhand, 11 people have died and officials are distributing firewood for the homeless.

"After dusk there is a mad scramble to get some firewood as only a bonfire can keep us alive at night," Abbas Ansari, a rickshaw puller said in Ranchi.

(Additional reporting by Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow)