The heat is so intense that Panda stops working by 10 every morning. Lakhan Gupta, a jeweler in the town of Atara, leaves home at 6am to finish most of his work before the heat settles. By 9 o’clock, he was back. By ten o’clock, the road outside is empty. The doors of his shop remain open, but customers rarely come in before the evening.
“Since April, I have sold almost nothing,” says Gupta. “After 10 a.m., Banda becomes deserted. At first, you see one or two people outside. Then, as daylight breaks, there is nothing but silence.”
On April 27 this year, Banda recorded 47.6°C, the highest temperature anywhere in India on that day and the highest since 1951, surpassing the previous April peak of 47.4°C which was reached on April 30, 2022 and April 25, 2026. On Tuesday, Banda was again the hottest in India at 48.2°C, setting a new record.
The consistent readings have placed Banda among the most extreme heat locations in India – a distinction long associated with Rajasthan cities like Churu and Jaisalmer. Researchers say the region’s vulnerability reflects not only the growing impacts of the climate crisis, but years of localized environmental destruction that has stripped away natural systems that once moderated its climate.
Locals say the implications are widespread disruption to how people work. This year, farmers began working in the fields at night under LED floodlights because working during the day had become unbearable. Contractors say workers are sacrificing up to 40% of their wages instead of working between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. The migration began earlier than usual. Food stalls that used to be open during the afternoon now operate after sunset.
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“It’s time to look at this seriously. Otherwise, Banda will not remain livable,” says Prahlad Valmiki, a resident of Bhadu village and his local wife, Pradhan. Valmiki said he spent the summer receiving complaints from neighbors about heat, water and failing crops.
At 44 substations across Banda, electricity department staff are continuously pouring water on more than 1,379 transformers after several units broke down over the past 45 days due to extreme temperatures and overload, with supplies already running at nearly 16 hours a day, electricity officials said.
Environmental researchers and local activists say what is happening in Banda is linked to years of environmental degradation across Bundelkhand’s already fragile landscape. A study published in the journal Extension Systems, co-authored by Arjun Varma of Banda Agricultural University, tracked forest cover from 1991-92 to 2021-2022 and found that Banda has lost nearly one-sixth of its dense forest cover. Open forests have shrunk at similar rates. The decline was consistent across all measures the researchers applied.
“The main reasons are large-scale mining and agricultural encroachment into forest lands,” says Varma. Then he adds something that does not appear in the study: “I myself work inside the office from 9:30 in the morning until the evening now. I cannot go out to the field.”
Prof. Dinesh Saha, head of the meteorology department at Banda Agricultural University, says mining has accelerated the drying of rivers, reducing groundwater recharge, while deforestation has weakened moisture retention, and dust generated by stone crusher units covers soil and vegetation. “All of these factors compound each other,” he says.
Damage is visible across the Vindhyan range. In the village of Gauri Khanpur in Babiru, farmer and activist Band Gopal says official estimates put the proportion of the Vindhyan Hills that have disappeared or been severely damaged at 25%. The range consists largely of porous sandstone overlain by layers of granite – during rainfall, the sandstone absorbs water and gradually recharges the aquifers. Environmentalists say that excessive explosions completely destroy this system.
From hills to rivers
What happened to the hills has a counterpart in the Banda Rivers. The Ken River, which flows through nearly 100 km from Banda before joining the Yamuna River, has seen sand reach industrial level, with heavy excavators operating within the riverbed in violation of the guidelines of the National Green Tribunal.
According to activist and journalist Ramlal Jayan, official estimates, made based on local assessment at the district administration level, indicate that about 55,000 tons of red sand are being extracted daily from Keen district alone. Mining has now spread to smaller rivers – the Rang and Bagai – where villagers say water levels have already fallen sharply.
“Over-extraction has stripped away natural river sand that helped retain water and recharge groundwater,” says social and environmental activist Uma Shankar Pandey. “Instead, exposed rock surfaces increase water runoff and reduce water retention.”
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Throughout the Banda villages, wells dry up early each summer. Borewells goes deeper.
The 2025 study by researchers from four universities, which was published earlier this year on ResearchGate and submitted to the state forest department, found that Banda’s total forest cover declined from about 120 square kilometers in 2005 to about 95 square kilometers, a 15.54% decline. Dense forest cover decreased by 17.55%. Researchers warned that parts of the region could become barren within two decades.
Professor Dhruv Sen Singh from the Department of Geology at Lucknow University explains it clearly: “Bandha has become a heat island due to loss of green cover, loss of moisture, increased sand area, reduced water bodies, and a vicious cycle of heat – the surface heats up all day, and before it subsides at night, the day explodes with brighter sunshine. So there is no respite.”
As the evening approaches, movement gradually returns to Atara Market. Tea stalls reopen. Motorcycles reappeared on roads that remained empty until the afternoon. Lakhan Gupta watches customers stream in again after sunset.
