New Delhi, August 17, 2026: As extreme heat intensifies across India, residents of one of Delhi’s densely populated low-income neighbourhoods are documenting what living through dangerous temperatures actually means for families, informal workers and communities with limited access to cooling and safe housing.
In Sunder Nagri, north-east Delhi, around 40 households have been keeping “heat diaries” documenting their daily experiences of extreme temperatures, including health problems, disrupted livelihoods, household expenses, sleep loss and the ways families try to cope with the heat. The testimonies are part of a community-led effort to ensure that people most exposed to extreme heat are included in climate and disaster planning.
Thermal imaging conducted in the neighbourhood recorded ground-surface temperatures above 54°C, including about 54.1°C in a market area. These figures represent surface temperatures rather than the official air temperature, highlighting how built-up areas can create intensely hot conditions at street level.
For residents, the heat is not simply a matter of discomfort.
Gulshan, who lives with her four children in a one-room home, reportedly wets the floor and clothing to create temporary relief during hot evenings. Her family uses a desert cooler but has to consider electricity costs, while prolonged exposure to heat and damp clothing has also contributed to skin problems. Other residents have described headaches, dehydration, fatigue, sleeplessness and gastrointestinal problems.
Young people and informal workers are particularly exposed. Residents who work as street vendors can face extremely hot conditions while simultaneously dealing with reduced customer numbers, faster spoilage of food and vegetables and declining daily incomes.
The diaries are significant because conventional temperature measurements do not always capture the full reality of urban heat. A weather station may record one temperature, while conditions inside a poorly ventilated one-room dwelling, on a concrete street or beside a roadside workplace can feel considerably more dangerous.
The issue has gained further importance following a major policy change in India.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has now included heatwaves and lightning in the list of notified natural calamities under the operational guidelines for the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for 2026–31. The government has also stated that heatwave mitigation projects are eligible for support through disaster mitigation funds.
The change means states can now access disaster-response and mitigation funding specifically for heatwave-related impacts, representing a significant shift in how extreme heat is treated within India's disaster-management framework.
Official data presented to India's Lok Sabha show that, as of July 26, 2026, Delhi had recorded 32 reported heatstroke cases since March 1, while thousands of heatstroke cases had been reported across several Indian states.
However, community researchers and civil-society groups argue that funding and policy must reach the people who face heat exposure every day-not only emergency services after a crisis occurs.
The experience of Sunder Nagri illustrates a wider climate-justice challenge facing rapidly growing cities: extreme heat is not experienced equally. Housing quality, access to electricity and water, occupation, income, gender and neighbourhood design can determine whether a heatwave becomes an inconvenience or a serious threat to health and livelihoods.
The heat diaries therefore offer more than personal stories. They provide ground-level evidence that can help governments understand where heat protection is most urgently needed-from affordable cooling and better housing to shaded public spaces, drinking-water access, worker protection and locally designed heat-action plans.
As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme heat, the voices emerging from Delhi’s most vulnerable neighbourhoods send a clear message: the true measure of a heatwave is not only the temperature recorded on a thermometer, but the human cost experienced by those who have the fewest resources to escape it.
For India-and increasingly for cities across the world-the challenge is now to turn those experiences into effective, equitable and locally grounded climate adaptation.
Ecosphere News | Environment • Climate • Development
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