Commuters brave a heat wave in Allahabad in India’s Uttar Pradesh state on June 7. 

Commuters brave a heat wave in Allahabad in India’s Uttar Pradesh state on June 7. 

Photographer: Ritesh Shukla/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Stories of Climate Adaptation From a Simmering Subcontinent

Air conditioners in the Himalayas and fans for the cows: How communities in India and Pakistan are coping with extreme heat.

For the last six months, one-eighth of humanity has been engulfed in unforgiving heat.

South Asia is known for its hot summers. But record-breaking temperatures arrived early this year, in the normally cool month of March. For days at a stretch, huge swathes of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka endured readings higher than 40C (104F).