Frying pan, wetland, gas chamber: Is it time for you to leave Delhi?

livemint.com:

The Ministry for the Future, by author Kim Stanley Robinson. The book, published in 2020, narrates how ‘The Great Indian Heatwave’ pushed the world to stop dragging its feet and find a way out of the climate crisis. But truth is stranger than fiction.

The incident described above takes place after 2025, when air temperatures have crossed 38 degrees Celsius. This summer, however, 38 degrees would have been considered balmy by millions across north and eastern India, as they often experienced temperatures that were at least 10 degrees higher. National capital Delhi recorded day temperatures nearing 50 degrees Celsius and experienced warm nights through May and June.

Public hospitals set up heat treatment wards, where patients reporting high fever were dunked in tubs filled with ice. Government health facilities reported 58 heatwave related deaths (till the third week of June). Delhi water minister Atishi Marlena sat on an indefinite fast, demanding more water from the Yamuna river from neighbouring Haryana.

Incredibly, after the heat wave in the capital, the pendulum swung to the other extreme. On the morning of 28 June, following a spell of heavy rainfall, parts of the city went under the water. A weather station in the heart of Delhi reported 3.6 times the entire month’s rain in just a few hours.

A canopy of Terminal 1 of the Delhi airport collapsed, killing a cab driver. Ten more died in other parts of the city. Overnight, the city’s priorities shifted from managing the heat wave and quenching the thirst of its parched residents to unblocking sewers and draining the flood waters.