'Summer is getting unbearable': Tracking heat in one of New Delhi's poorest areas

Durga Devi finds no relief after a day working in New Delhi’s sweltering summer, because her poorly ventilated home radiates trapped heat, leaving her bedroom as hot as 45 degrees at night. Campaigners are now documenting conditions in this densely packed area of India’s capital, home to some of the country’s poorest people, hoping to push policymakers to better protect vulnerable communities. “I prefer staying outside after work, because inside the house there is no relief,” said 45-year-old Devi, who lives in the cramped lanes of Delhi’s Sundar Nagri district. She spends eight hours a day working in a factory without a fan, only to return at dusk to stifling heat at home. The one-room house — like many in this part of the sprawling megacity of 30 million people — has concrete walls, low roofs and poor ventilation, which combine to trap heat during the day and keep the space oppressively hot throughout the night. Devi’s son Abhishek has been keeping a heat diary and tracking temperatures inside the home and around the neighbourhood using a thermal camera, part of an initiative supported by Greenpeace India that includes 20 families in the area. “I want to show how high the temperature goes here, and what it is like to live in this condition,” said Abhishek, a 21-year-old student. His findings reveal temperatures well above those recorded by official meteorological stations. Devi said she had recorded temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celcius on her bedroom wall at night. During the day, the concrete road outside registered a blistering 60℃. When AFP visited, the camera recorded the room temperature at 32℃, while the kitchen wall was hotter, at 37℃. This picture taken on June 22, 2026 shows a humidity meter used to monitor moisture levels at Durga Devi’s house in New Delhi. —AFP ‘No place to recover’ “Heat doesn’t end when the temperature outside falls,” said Deepali Tonk, who has helped organise the project for Greenpeace India. “For many families, the struggle co