'Every year the heat is increasing': India learns to live with hotter summers
Why this matters: local context for readers following news across Pakistan and the region.
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. Thi