April was never this hot. As temperatures soared to 45°C and above and people huffed and puffed, it didn’t help to learn from weather update apps that 45 felt like 49. Social media feeds sizzled with deep crimson heat maps. On 24 April, @WeatherMonitors released a list — the 100 hottest cities in the world that day were all in India.

Amidst a hellscape for those labouring outdoors, public hospitals like Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi informed the public that heat stroke units for ‘rapid, intensive care to combat high mortality rates, including specialised cooling tubs, 200 kg ice-making machines and portable ice packs’ were available.

A summer action plan unveiled by the Delhi government advised parents to ensure that children wear ‘thin, cotton clothes’. Schools introduced a ‘water bell’ to remind kids to drink water. Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia advised people to carry an onion in their pocket to beat the heat. Like he did. Scindia, who apparently never rode in AC cars or sat in AC offices. Social media posts with the multiple AC units in his office circled in red mocked the minister’s claims.

Who or what is to blame for the escalating fury of the Indian summer? Even as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation turns the dial towards extreme heat, the more inconvenient truth is becoming harder — if not impossible — to ignore. India is witnessing a hybrid disaster — the convergence of global warming and a domestic policy that has systematically dismantled the natural cooling systems of our land, water and forests.

What we call ‘heat stress’ is as much a result of man’s greed mas- querading as ‘development’ as it is a meteorological event. In the summer of 2024 and through the current cycles of 2026, the frequent breaching of the 48°C mark in north India and Bundelkhand is biologically lethal. The impact of this manmade inferno is harshest on the very people who build the structures that displace nature.

Also Read: A silent crisis: scorching heat, rising UVI

For millions of construction workers and........

© National Herald