The troop was desperate to cool off and rehydrate during India’s deadly heatwave (Picture: ABACA/Rex/Shutterstock)
A group of 32 monkeys died after becoming trapped in a well as they searched for water in 45°C heat.
Entire lakes have dried up during extreme heats that have killed more than 200 people from heatstroke in India.
Among the dead are poll workers and voters casting their ballots in the world’s largest democracy’s general election.
The high temperatures have sparked fears of a deadly ‘wet bulb’, when the air is too humid for people to regulate their body heat by sweating.
Having already caused the mass deaths of fruit bats, the heatwave has now claimed the lives of 32 monkeys in Jharkhand, a state in northeastern India.
Temperatures here have not dropped below 40°C in months, leading humans and animals alike desperate to escape the heat.
With lakes turning to dust, this troop of dehydrated primates jumped into a well in a final fatal act.
The monkeys’ search for water ended when they became trapped in a well (Picture: ABACA/Rex/Shutterstock)
Voters and poll workers have died from heatstroke during the world’s biggest election (Picture: Rajat Gupta/EPA)
But they became trapped, drowning in its depths, India’s Digital Journal reported.
They had reportedly been scouring local villages in search of water before entering the well.
Investigators are no awaiting the result sof post-mortems on the monkeys, according to Kumar Ashish, a local government forest officer.
He said: ‘A team of forest officials are investigating.’
Despite the deadly heatwave, two thirds of the nearly one billion eligible voters cast ballots in India’s federal election.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party lost its majority in the Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament.
But they did win the most seats for the third election in a row, meaning Modi can continue his 10-year reign with the support of allied parties.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.