Published: July 29, 2025 | 8:45 AM IST
Source: Based on reports from IMD, NDTV, and local energy departments
India is Literally Burning Right Now – And Nobody’s Talking About How Bad This Really Is
Okay, so I just saw the numbers and I’m honestly shaken. Like, properly shaken.
We just hit 250 gigawatts of power demand on Monday. I had to read that three times because… that’s never happened. Not once in our entire history as a country.
And it’s not some celebration milestone. It’s pure desperation.
This Heat is Different
Indias Brutal Heatwave Pushes Power Demand to Record High — And It’s Far From Over
I’ve lived through Indian summers my whole life, but this? This is something else entirely. We’re talking 48°C across Delhi, UP, Rajasthan, Bihar. That’s hot enough to literally melt roads – and I’m not using “literally” loosely here. The asphalt is actually melting.
My cousin in Gurgaon sent me a video yesterday of his car door handle being too hot to touch at 7 PM. Seven in the evening.
And the thing that’s keeping me awake? We haven’t even hit August yet. This is supposed to be the buildup.
When the Lights Go Out
The power grid is basically having a panic attack. Every coal plant, every solar farm, every renewable source is being pushed to maximum. But even then, it’s not enough.
And here’s something that blew my mind – even our solar panels are giving up. Turns out extreme heat makes them work worse. So we’re in this weird situation where the thing that’s supposed to help us is also struggling.
The National Load Dispatch Centre sounds like they’re managing a war room, not a power grid.
Real Stories from Real People
Yesterday, two elderly people collapsed in a Jaipur clinic. Not from illness. From heat. Because there was no fan running during a five-hour power cut.
Think about that for a second. You go to a clinic for help, and the clinic itself becomes dangerous because there’s no electricity.
In Bihar, they’ve cut school to morning-only sessions, but kids are still fainting during morning assembly. Morning. When it’s supposed to be the coolest part of the day.
A farmer I read about in Punjab is literally begging for extra power hours just to run his water pump. Without it, everything he’s planted this season dies. His entire year’s work, gone.
At AIIMS in Delhi, they’re seeing three times more heatstroke cases than just two weeks ago. Three times. In two weeks.
The Rich Stay Cool, the Poor Get Cooked
You know what really makes me angry? How unfair this whole thing is.
I have friends who are cranking their ACs and complaining about electricity bills. Meanwhile, in the slums of Mumbai and Kolkata, people are living under tin roofs that have basically become ovens.
Rickshaw drivers are sleeping outside under whatever trees they can find. Not because they want to be close to nature, but because their own homes have become uninhabitable.
A daily wage worker in Lucknow said something that’s been stuck in my head: “I can’t stay home because then my family doesn’t eat. But going out in this heat feels like I’m cooking myself alive.”
That’s the choice millions of people are making right now. Risk death or risk starvation. What kind of choice is that?
Even the Experts Sound Scared
Dr. R. Gupta, who studies climate stuff, didn’t sugarcoat it: “This isn’t normal weather anymore. We’re living through the climate crisis in real time. And honestly, we’re completely unprepared – our infrastructure, our policies, our hospitals. None of it is ready for this.”
When experts stop being diplomatic and start sounding genuinely worried, you know things are bad.
What’s the Government Actually Doing?
They’re telling thermal plants to run at 100%. Importing more coal. Asking states to keep an eye on power cuts.
The weather department has slapped red alerts on half the country for the next three days.
But honestly? It feels like showing up to a house fire with a water bottle. The crisis isn’t coming anymore – it’s here, it’s in every powerless home, every overwhelmed hospital, every dying crop field.
What Happens Next?
Everyone’s crossing their fingers for the monsoon. Maybe August brings some relief. Maybe the rains show up early and heavy this year.
But what if they don’t? What if this is just the warm-up act?
Right now, families are doing whatever they can think of. Buckets of cold water, wet towels, praying. People are treating electricity like rationed food during wartime.
And maybe that’s exactly what this is – a war. Except we’re fighting something that doesn’t negotiate, doesn’t compromise, doesn’t care about our politics or our economics.
The heat hits everyone, but somehow the poor always get hit hardest. They always do.
The Bottom Line
This isn’t just “hot weather” anymore. This is genuinely dangerous. People are dying. Infrastructure is failing. And we’re breaking records nobody wanted to break.
We need to start treating this like the emergency it actually is. Because pretending everything’s normal while the country literally burns around us isn’t working anymore.
This is our reality now. And it’s only getting started.