Banda/Lucknow: As you enter Banda, the heat hits you first. This isn’t summer — it’s survival.At over 48°C, the town having a population of 17,99,410 folds in by noon. Streets empty. Shops shut. Kids are locked indoors. Fans just swirl hot air. For days now, this Bundelkhand town has been hotter than Middle Eastern deserts. The air feels straight from a blast furnace. Metal burns. Tap water runs warm. Even nights offer no escape — the ground keeps radiating heat. The 49.2°C record from 2019 holds, but 47s and 48s are now common. By 11 am, life here retreats.To fight the grueling heatwave, Banda has developed its own survival method. By 11 am, many markets in Pangara, Naraini and Atarra villages of the rocky terrain begin to wrap up. In the narrow lanes, traders sprinkle buckets of water outside their shops in the hope that evaporation might briefly soften the blaze. Above modest homes, families drag hoses to terraces, soaking concrete roofs before nightfall so rooms below become barely habitable. Walls are repainted with limestone to absorb heat.“The rituals are old. But the desperation feels new,” says Laxmi Narayan, a local.“By noon, the crowd on the streets begins to disappear as life retreats indoors. Shop shutters clang down earlier than usual. Tea stalls fall silent. Rickshaw pullers vanish into pockets of shade…. Everyone in the village is trying the age-old, innovative ways to beat the heat,” he tells TOI over the phone.In Naraini, where power cuts and frequent tripping still exist, sleep has become a negotiation with sweat. “Entire families carry charpoys onto terraces after dark, hoping for a breeze. Many pour water directly onto the floor before lying down, turning homes into makeshift cooling chambers for a few fleeting minutes,” says Aditya Tiwari, a trader.“We are avoiding venturing out in the blazing sun as much as possible. If we have to, we keep wiping our forehead with a wet gamcha,” he adds.Amid a punishing heatwave, mornings begin unnaturally early. Vegetable vendors finish rounds before noon. Construction workers retreat by afternoon. However, for locals whose livelihoods depend on daily labour, heat is not something that can be avoided. labour, the heat cannot be avoided.In the evenings, once temperatures dip from unbearable to merely brutal, neighbourhoods slowly return outdoors. Conversations resume on charpoys. Men gather at paan kiosks. “I open shop at 7 am and close by noon. I return only after sunset. Survival comes first, money can wait,” says Nikhil Yadav, a pharmacist.At Banda district hospital, doctors report a familiar procession of dehydration, dizziness and , exhaustion. Oral rehydration salts disappear quickly from pharmacy shelves. Watermelons, cucumbers and earthen matkas have become both commodity and comfort.The weather office has forecast that ‘heatwave to severe heatwave’ “heatwave to severe heatwave” conditions are likely to continue over southern districts of UP for the next three to four days, particularly in Bundelkhand, with little immediate relief expected.Admin sets up cooler shelters to beat the heatTo help residents battle the relentless heat, the administration has installed ‘pyaus’ — public drinking water kiosks — across the town and at the railway station. At the bustling Kutchery crossing, authorities have even set up a makeshift resting shelter fitted with coolers, offering passersby a brief escape from the searing afternoon sun.Model heat action planAfter the devastating 2010 heatwave, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporationand partners launched India’s first Heat Action Plan in 2013. Updated periodically, the HAP guides extreme heat planning with an early warning system. Its main goal: alert vulnerable groups when extreme heat hits and ensure precautions. It also covers long-term steps like the Ahmedabad Cool Roofs Program. A 2018 study found the HAP helped avoid an estimated 2,380 deaths. Key include public awareness, early warning, capacity building, reducing heat exposure and promoting adaptive measures, launching cool roofs programme.
