Latest news with #Chunara
New Indian Express
4 days ago
- New Indian Express
Drone footage of Srimandir's flag changing ritual sparks concern
PURI: The recent drone footage of the flag changing ritual in Shree Jagannath Temple has raised serious security concerns. The video was first uploaded by a user named Surajit Biswas on Facebook. It captures the ritual of changing the flag on the temple's Nilachakra, performed by a Chunara sevayat. Notably, the sevayat is seen acknowledging the drone camera with folded hands instead of raising alarm over its presence. Senior servitor Krushna Chandra Khuntia said the video suggests the Chunara sevayat may have been involved in its creation. 'The matter should be thoroughly investigated, and if the sevayat is found guilty, he must face consequences,' he said. He also urged authorities to install anti-drone technology at the temple without delay.
NDTV
21-05-2025
- Health
- NDTV
How This Indian City Is Using Smartwatches To Deal With Searing Heat
Sapnaben Chunara spends most of the day outdoors because it is even hotter in her tin-roofed house in Vanzara Vas, a low-income neighborhood on the outskirts of the Western Indian city of Ahmedabad. Indoor temperatures can be hotter, especially when outside temperatures climb above 40 degrees Celsius (104 F). That was once rare but now happens regularly. And this year, high heat started three weeks earlier than in previous years, touching 43 degrees Celsius (109.40 F) in early April. Chunara is one of 204 residents of Vanzara Vas given wristwatch-style health monitors as part of a year-long study to find out how heat affects vulnerable communities around the world. Show Full
New Indian Express
03-05-2025
- Health
- New Indian Express
Smart watches join the fight as Ahmedabad battles blazing heat
AHMEDABAD: It's a little past 10 a.m. and the heat is already blazing on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Sapnaben Chunara, a 30-year-old mother of three, has just finished her morning chores. She seeks respite from the heat in the shade of a neem tree, a species that can withstand high temperatures and drought. Chunara spends most of the day outdoors in Vanzara Vas, a low-income neighbourhood of about 800 families, because her tin-roofed house is even hotter. Indoor temperatures can be even higher, especially when outside they climb above 40 degrees Celsius (104 F). That was once rare but now happens regularly. And this year, high heat started three weeks earlier than in previous years, touching 43 degrees Celsius (109.40 F) in early April. "Sometimes it gets so hot, I can't think straight," said Chunara, sporting a black smartwatch that contrasts sharply with her colorful bangles and sari. Chunara is one of 204 residents of Vanzara Vas given the smartwatches for a year-long study to find out how heat affects vulnerable communities around the world. The watches measure heart rate and pulse and track sleep, and participants get weekly blood pressure checks. Researchers also painted some roofs with reflective paint to reduce indoor heat and will compare them to homes without so-called cool roofs using indoor heat sensors. Along with the smartwatches, this will help them understand how much cool roofs can help poor households deal with India's scorching summers.
South China Morning Post
03-05-2025
- Climate
- South China Morning Post
Indians weather the heat with smartwatches and cool roofs
It is a little past 10am and the heat is already blazing on the outskirts of the Western Indian city of Ahmedabad. Advertisement Sapnaben Chunara, a 30-year-old mother of three, has just finished her morning chores. She seeks respite from the heat in the shade of a neem tree, a species that can withstand high temperatures and drought. Chunara spends most of the day outdoors in Vanzara Vas, a low-income neighbourhood of about 800 families, because her tin-roofed house is even hotter. Indoor temperatures can be even higher, especially when outside they climb above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). That was once rare but now happens regularly. And this year, high heat started three weeks earlier than in previous years, touching 43 degrees in early April. 'Sometimes it gets so hot, I can't think straight,' said Chunara, sporting a black smartwatch that contrasts sharply with her colourful bangles and sari. Data collector Komal Parmar (right) talks to Sapnaben Chunara to get heat related information in Ahmedabad, India, on April 2. Photo: AP Chunara is one of 204 residents of Vanzara Vas given the smartwatches for a year-long study to find out how heat affects vulnerable communities around the world.
Euronews
02-05-2025
- Science
- Euronews
This Indian city is using smartwatches to track the impact of increasingly deadly extreme heat
ADVERTISEMENT It's a little past 10 a.m. and the heat is already blazing on the outskirts of the Western Indian city of Ahmedabad. Sapnaben Chunara, a 30-year-old mother of three, has just finished her morning chores. She seeks respite from the heat in the shade of a neem tree, a species that can withstand high temperatures and drought. Chunara spends most of the day outdoors in Vanzara Vas, a low-income neighbourhood of about 800 families, because her tin-roofed house is even hotter. Indoor temperatures can be even higher, especially when outside they climb above 40 degrees Celsius. That was once rare, but now it happens regularly . And this year, high heat started three weeks earlier than in previous years, touching 43 degrees Celsius in early April. Related Your rooftop solar panels could be at risk from cyberattacks. Here's how we can fortify the tech Nappies, smartphone glass, and cigarette butts are piling up in Europe. How can we recycle them? 'Sometimes it gets so hot, I can't think straight,' said Chunara, sporting a black smartwatch that contrasts sharply with her colourful bangles and sari. Chunara is one of 204 residents of Vanzara Vas given the smartwatches for a year-long study to find out how heat affects vulnerable communities around the world. The watches measure heart rate and pulse and track sleep, and participants get weekly blood pressure checks. Data collector Komal Parmar, right, talks with Sapnaben Chunara to get heat related information in Ahmedabad, India. AP Photo/Ajit Solanki Researchers also painted some roofs with reflective paint to reduce indoor heat and will compare them to homes without so-called cool roofs using indoor heat sensors. Along with the smartwatches, this will help them understand how much cool roofs can help poor households deal with India's scorching summers. Chunara, whose home didn't get a cool roof, said she's happy to participate by wearing the watch, confident the results will help her family, too. "They might paint my roof as well, and they might be able to do something that helps all of us in this area cope with the heat better,' Chunara said. Killer heat is the new normal in India Cities like Ahmedabad have always had hot summers, but now they're nearing the threshold beyond which exposure for more than a few hours can be fatal. In the summer of 2010, the city witnessed nearly 1,300 excess deaths — how many more people died than would be expected — which experts found were most likely due to high temperatures. An increasingly hot planet , due largely to burning fossil fuels such as coal and gas that release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, means already hot regions are getting even worse. A 2023 study estimated that if the global mean temperature continues to rise to just under 2 degrees Celsius, there would be a 370 per cent rise in heat-related deaths around the world, and most would happen in South and Southeast Asia and Africa. People wheel in a heat stroke patient, covered in ice cube bags, at a hospital in Ahmadabad, India, May 21, 2010. AP Photo/Ajit Solanki, File 'This is a big concern, and it also shows the heat divide' between the poor and wealthy, said Abhiyant Tiwari, a climate expert with the Natural Resources Defence Council and part of the group conducting the research in Ahmedabad. Following the 2010 tragedy, city officials, with help from public health and heat experts, devised an action plan to warn citizens when the heat is at dangerous levels and prepare city hospitals to respond rapidly to heat-related illness. The plan has been replicated across India and other parts of South Asia. ADVERTISEMENT The last two years have been the world's hottest ever, and researchers hope their work can provide an additional line of defence for those who bear the brunt of increasing heat. Finding solutions to deal with the heat The Ahmedabad study is only one part of a global research project examining how heat is affecting poor, vulnerable communities in four cities across the world. Researchers are also measuring heat impacts using smartwatches and other devices in Africa's Burkina Faso, the Pacific island of Niue near New Zealand and in the Sonoran desert region in Mexico. A man applies reflective paint on the roof of a house to reduce indoor heat in Ahmedabad, India. AP Photo/Ajit Solanki More than 1.1 billion people — about one-eighth of the world's population — live in informal settlements and poor neighbourhoods that are particularly vulnerable , said Aditi Bunker, environmental health researcher associated with the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and Heidelberg University, Germany, who is leading the global project. 'Climate change and heat are ravaging populations. And now the question comes, what are we doing to address this?' she said, referring to the motivation behind the research. ADVERTISEMENT In Ahmedabad, Bunker, along with researchers at the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, is constantly collecting relevant health data. Related Deadly floods, storms and heatwaves: Europe suffered the 'serious impacts' of climate change in 2024 Fact check: Did wind and solar really cause Portugal and Spain's mass blackout? If they find that cool roofs effectively reduce indoor heat , they plan to paint the roofs of all the homes. Researchers hope their study leads to more use of solutions like cool roofs for poor, vulnerable populations around the world — and that policymakers will factor in such solutions when deciding how their countries and communities can adapt to increasing heat exposure. People walk through buildings in Vanzara Vas, a low-income neighborhood, in Ahmedabad, India. AP Photo/Ajit Solanki For now, Vanzara Vas residents like Chunara and her neighbour, Shantaben Vanzara, said they will take any help they can get. Shantaben Vanzara said the heat has made her diabetes worse, but being part of the study has provided her family some respite. 'We don't get to sleep because of the heat," she said. "After the roof got painted, we can sleep for a few hours a night at least.' ADVERTISEMENT Chunara said temperatures used to be predictable. 'Now we don't know when or what will happen,' she said. 'The only thing that we know for sure is that the heat is getting worse every year.'
