NEW DELHI — India’s top court has ordered free train rides and food and water for hundreds of thousands of migrant workers returning to villages in blazing heat after losing city jobs because of the pandemic.

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that state governments shall oversee the registration of migrant workers and ensure that they board the train or bus at an early date.

Television images have shown desperate and hungry migrants looting food carts on railroad stations and highways. Several migrants have died while travelling on the trains this week, with day temperatures rising to 113 degrees (45 Celsius).

After imposing a countrywide lockdown March 25 to contain the spread of COVID-19, the government stopped trains, buses and other transit.