Sweltering summer temperatures have turned the city into a furnace. “Forget about frying an egg on the sidewalk; this kind of heat would fry an egg inside the chicken!” someone walking on the road aptly said.
Harried by oppressive heat, people are using every trick in the book to stay cool. The mounting death toll has put on high alert the district officials who insist that residents stay indoors, at least during peak afternoon hours, to avoid heat stroke. Most people are seen using caps, scarves or some other headgear to protect from the harsh sunrays. But not many people know that a solution is waiting in their kitchen. “Keep an onion in your pocket while going out because the humble vegetable is known to absorb most of the heat and prevent one’s body from taking it all,” says Santosh Kumar, Executive Director of the National Institute of Disaster Management. Traditional time-tested methods to get rid of heat are most reliable, he maintained, adding that a drink like Aam panna could help a great deal in beating the heat.
Aam panna , prepared using raw mangoes, sugar and an assortment of spices, quenches thirst and prevents the excessive loss of sodium chloride and iron during summer due to excessive sweating.
Mr. Kumar, who is also Director, SAARC’s Disaster Management Centre, said the deadly heat indicated strong El Nino symptoms and expressed concern about its possible cascading impact on water, food and fodder.
He admits that although the severity of summer claims manys lives, it is not considered a ‘loud disaster’. “We are very casual in taking heat-related warnings. People don’t realise that heat can claim lives. Even in the government plans, summer is marginalised,” he says.
As relief measures, he feels that the authorities must set up roadside water kiosks and “now that we do not have trees, create shades at short distances.” Pointing to the fact that the duration of winter is reduced and summer span has increased, he says “we need to change our perspective; how we see summer must change.”
Keep an onion in your pocket while going out because the humble vegetable is known to absorb most of the heat and prevent one’s body from taking it all
Santosh Kumar
Executive Director of the National Institute of Disaster Management
