‘Every year the heat is increasing’: India learns to live with hotter summers

On India’s hot plains, scorching summers have become increasingly harder to endure, requiring adaptations and forcing life into the hours of dark before the sun turns punishing. “We try to adjust, but the traditional ways to combat heat are not working, ” said 26-year-old herdsman Sawai Bhati Singh, who lives outside the desert city of Jaisalmer, in the western state of Rajasthan. “Every year the heat is increasing. ” His home, made of thick stone blocks with few windows, helps keep some of the furnace-like heat out. But temperatures inside are still stifling. This photograph taken on May 29, 2026 shows herdsman Sawai Singh Bhati’s father, Khet Singh carrying his grandson at their house in Sanwata village on the outskirts of Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer city. — AFP The South Asian country is no stranger to scorching summers, but years of scientific research have found climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense. Temperatures in Singh’s village of Sanwata hit 45 degrees Celsius in early June, as is often during the summer. The highest temperature recorded in the area has been 49 degrees Celsius. Singh is worried about the health of his two young sons, aged two and four, playing barefoot in the dust. This photograph taken on May 29, 2026 shows herdsman Sawai Singh Bhati (2L) posing for a family portrait in 42 degrees Celsius temperatures, at their house in Sanwata village on the outskirts of Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer city. — AFP In a separate kitchen hut with a thatched roof for ventilation, his wife and mother struggle as they cook on a wood fire. Water is drawn from a nearby well and cooled in bottles wrapped in woven jute string, using evaporation to lower the temperature. Singh’s herd of goats and cattle struggles too. “They stay in the shade, ” he said. “The heat impacts the eating, and that lowers their milk. ” But temperatures are becoming harder to endure. The family bought their first air cooler, which uses wet fibres, last year. This photograph taken on May 29, 2026 shows herdsman Sawai Singh Bhati (L) talking to his brother while sitting in front of an air-cooler in 42 degrees Celsius temperatures, at his house in Sanwata village on the outskirts of Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer city. — AFP “We never needed it before, but last year was hot, so we bought one, ” he said. “Now we have two. ” A world away, along the lush green banks of the Yamuna river floodplains near the capital, New Delhi, farmer Bhole Shankar faces a different version of the same crisis. New Delhi hit 46. 5 degrees Celsius this summer, still below the sizzling 49. 9 degrees Celsius record measured in 2024. This photograph taken on June 3, 2026 shows Debvati (L) washing clothes as her husband farmer Bhole Shankar pours fruit juice after returning from work in approximately 40 degrees Celsius temperatures, inside their shanty on the Yamuna river floodplains in New Delhi. — AFP “Living on the floodplain feels cooler than being stuck in the middle of houses, ” 36-year-old Shankar said, standing outside a hut made of plastic sheeting on bamboo poles. “But on some days, day and night feel the same. ” Shankar, his wife and their three sons, aged between nine and 16, live beneath the city’s power lines — but their hut is not connected. A solar panel provides enough power to run a small fan, pushing hot air. This photograph taken on June 3, 2026 shows farmer Bhole Shankar’s wife, Debvati (C) harvesting radish from the fields in approximately 40 degrees Celsius temperatures, on the Yamuna river floodplains in New Delhi. — AFP The family shifts its routine, working in the fields before dawn, resting in the shade during the fiercest heat, and returning to check crops towards dusk. The family roll up the tent’s plastic wall and sleep on traditional rope-lattice beds, which both allow air to circulate. “Each passing year feels hotter, ” he said. “We try to keep in the shade, but when you are a farmer, that’s hard. ” Header image: This photograph taken on May 29, 2026 shows herdsman Sawai Singh Bhati’s mother, Seema Kawar, carrying a plastic pan after feeding cattle outside her house in Sanwata village on the outskirts of Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer city. — AFP

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