The past week has been bleak in Bengaluru. What initially brought relief to the hot summers quickly turned into a nightmare. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the city has already breached the 100 mm rainfall/day mark this month, classifying the event as ‘heavy rainfall’. The high-intensity rains over the past few days have disrupted lives, resulting in waterlogged roads, submerged underpasses, overflowing drains, fallen trees, and widespread power outages.

At a national conference on climate and health titled ‘India 2047: Building a Climate-Resilient Future’, recently, a trade union leader shared the lived reality of garment workers in sweltering factories, while a climate modeller spoke about wet-bulb temperatures — two equally important perspectives that are reflective of science and the lived reality. The conference showed the power of unlikely collaborations: paediatricians with architects, maternal health experts with city engineers, and academicians with policymakers.