Coping with 54C heat: Delhi slum diaries detail living in extreme temperatures

Climate activists and residents of Sunder Nagri create a mural on the effects of extreme heat. Satellite data shows large discrepancies between temperatures in rich and poor areas. Photograph: Sipa US/Alamy View image in fullscreen Climate activists and residents of Sunder Nagri create a mural on the effects of extreme heat. Satellite data shows large discrepancies between temperatures in rich and poor areas. Photograph: Sipa US/Alamy Coping with 54C heat: Delhi slum diaries detail living in extreme temperatures With heatwaves now recognised as disasters, personal testimonies are key to a new project that looks to protect those living in the most cramped districts of India’s capital Every summer evening, Gulshan follows the same routine. She washes the floor of her one-room home several times so it cools a little for her four children to sleep on. Last summer, the family saved enough to buy a desert cooler, which uses evaporation as a cheaper alternative to air conditioning. The family uses the appliance cautiously to save on energy costs. But even when it is on, Gulshan, who does not use a surname, has to dampeneveryone’s clothes before sleeping. The 39-year-old and her children now have rashes and one has a skin infection from the wet cloth against their skin. View image in fullscreen Gulshan writes in her heat diary. Photograph: SuchitraThis summer, Gulshan started jotting down these coping strategies in a garmi khata, or heat registry. “I feel relieved that at least somebody might read my family’s experiences,” she says. They are one of 40 households in Sunder Nagri, a slum in north-east Delhi, documenting their experiences of surviving the city’s increasingly longer and more frequent heatwaves. Over the last few years, cities across India have begun drawing up heat action plans – agreements formulated by a municipality or district administration on how to prepare for and respond to extreme heat. While some incorporate data such as satellite-derived land surface temperatures to identify heat hotspots, there are still significant gaps in information on people, making it difficult to understand how heat is experienced differently across communities. Aravind Unni, an urban planner and researcher in Delhi, says: “Experiences of heat are vastly different depending on geography, income, occupation, gender, caste, class. “While we have some meteorological data on heat, what’s absolutely missing is people, community – what they feel, what they experience.” View image in fullscreen A thermal image of Sunder Nagri’s main market area, showing a ground temperature of 54.1C (129.4F).