With sirens blaring, Sunil Kumar Naik’s ambulance tore through the dry and rocky landscape ravaged by the dangerous midday heat and rushed to check on a vomiting and dazed 30-year-old man with possible heatstroke. Once they reached the man’s village, Naik’s paramedic guided the stricken man into an ambulance, then checked his pulse and oxygen levels as Naik rushed back to the public hospital.
After drinking some water for a moment and splashing their faces, the men were sent out again, this time to pick up a pregnant woman who had given birth when the temperature reached 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheit). And so ensued another furious 12-hour shift in India’s increasingly deadly summer, when Naik and paramedic Jitendra Kumar sometimes found themselves rushing up to twice the usual number of calls.
Extreme heat is fast becoming a public health crisis in India, with more than 150 people dying during the last brutal heat wave in June. Prolonged heat waves, sometimes classified as a slow-onset disaster, are one of the deadliest consequences of global warming India is facing.
The government estimates that almost 11,000 people have died during heat waves this century, yet experts say these figures are likely to be vastly underestimated.
Banpur, a village of about 13,000 people, lies in the largely impoverished Bundelkhand region deep in the interior of India. It is arid and rocky, with little tree cover to protect people in one of the hottest regions on earth.
Naik and Kumar form one of two ambulance crews that cover the village and surrounding area, transporting patients to the government’s public health centre. State and federal governments help fund the not-for-profit ambulance service, making it a toll-free helpline for patients.
“I consider every patient a member of my family. I don’t care if it’s hot or hungry, I’m on a mission to get the patient out and transport him to the hospital,” said Naik, whose only protection against the heat and dry hot wind is white. a cotton towel wrapped around the head. “It’s hard for me to drive a vehicle in extreme heat, but it’s nothing compared to the hardships of a patient in a medical emergency.”
