How the Hottest Place in India Survives

The unbearable temperatures that arrive every summer in India are a threat to lives and livelihoods. Medical services become bogged down. Economic output suffers.

For many Indians, there is no true escape from the heat. Air-conditioning is an impossible dream. Work is done outside, under the sun, and not to work means not to eat.

In the face of those realities, the daily rhythms of life are changing in India, the most populous country on a continent that is warming at a rate twice as fast as the global average.

The temperature on the day of our visit peaked at 47 degrees Celsius, or 117 degrees Fahrenheit. The next day was even worse: 49 degrees Celsius, or 121 degrees Fahrenheit. Relative humidity that has been rising over the past decade compounded the misery.