LUCKNOW, June 5 -- Extreme heat is no longer just a weather event in Uttar Pradesh. It is increasingly becoming an environmental consequence of how land, water and natural resources have been managed over decades. Scientists say shrinking forests, depleted groundwater, river degradation, mining and rapid urbanisation have weakened the natural systems that once cooled the landscape, creating what they describe as a growing "heat trap".

The phenomenon is most visible in Bundelkhand, where Banda recently emerged as one of the hottest places in the world. Yet experts insist the crisis is not irreversible. The same ecosystems whose decline has intensified the heat - forests, rivers, wetlands and groundwater reserves - could also provide the m...