NEW DELHI, June 25: India’s monsoon rains, vital for its farm-reliant economy, have advanced to cover more areas of the country and bring relief from a searing June heat wave that has claimed 334 lives, a weather official said.

“The southwest monsoon has advanced further into states like Orissa and Uttar Pradesh,” a weather official in New Delhi said, referring to two states in the north and the east scorched by a heat wave over the past few weeks.

An official of the Orissa state government told reporters that the death toll due to baking temperatures in the state had climbed to 137.

But the monsoon rains “have been active in Orissa in the past 24 hours and have brought down temperatures,” the official said.

The death toll across India due to the baking heat was 334, the PTI said.

The monsoons struck India’s mainland June 5, four days later than usual.—AFP