Why Bundelkhand’s Banda became India’s hottest city as temperatures cross 48°C
Rajneesh Sareen, director, sustainable building and habitat programme, Centre for Science and Environment, said the land cover pattern was a major factor behind the extreme temperatures in Banda. As north India reels under a heatwave with temperatures crossing well over 40 degrees Celsius, there is one city that with no respite from the extreme weather — Banda in Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region. Termed the ‘world’s hottest city’, Banda has consecutively topped the list, with mercury here reaching as high as 48.2 on the Centigrade scale. But it is not just the weather that heats Banda. As per scientists and environmentalists, the heat here has also catapulted various ecological reasons — environmental damage, deforestation, reducing water bodies, mining along the Ken river, and changes in land-use pattern in Banda and its surroundings. The many challenges Banda’s topology plays a major role in increasing the temperature. The region has widespread open land, rocky terrain and exposed agricultural land, paired with less green cover. Rajneesh Sareen, director, sustainable building and habitat programme, Centre for Science and Environment, said the land cover pattern was a major factor behind the extreme temperatures in Banda. “After harvesting, much of the land remains exposed in Banda and starts behaving like a heat centre,” Sareen said, adding that dried riverbeds and reduced water flow also intensify the problem. Such terrains absorb more heat, and — combined with the mining zones, brick kilns and heavy machinery in the area — turn Banda region into what many experts describe as a “man-made heat centre”. Sareen adds, “Banda is one such location, where the rise in temperature has more contribution from land cover than from urban morphology or anthropogenic contributors.”