With an uncharacteristically warm February sparking climate change speculations, experts have said that it may be too early to draw conclusions.
Assistant Professor at the Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT), Surabhi Mehrotra, says that even if the change in weather this year is evident, the trend will require thorough study before it can be linked to climate change.
Mehrotra's pronouncements, however, fail to find an echo among the old-timers in the city, who say that the city’s weather has undergone massive changes in recent decades.
They argue that the change in meteorological conditions is most evident to farmers in and around Bhopal, who have had to nearly give up on rainfed soybean crops after facing erratic rainfall patterns.
Once a sleepy little town of kacha thatched houses and kavelu roofs, Bhopal was known for its pleasant evenings, even during the harshest of summer months, they say.
If they are to be believed, rampant concrete construction, industrialisation, and an influx of petrol and diesel vehicles have changed all that by creating unprecedented levels of urban heat. Despite a beautiful and sustainable indigenous architectural tradition, the city has failed to draw on the principles of vernacular architecture to create its dwellings.
While initial dwellings in the city were built from entirely biodegradable materials, including edibles like urad dal and jaggery, as well as limestone, dung, and hay, the 1980s saw significant changes in the urban landscape, with concrete structures mushrooming across the city.
Mehrotra admits that even indigenous communities living in hamlets on the city fringes have abandoned their age-old construction practices and now use concrete to build their houses. A cursory search on the internet reveals that the average annual temperature in Bhopal has climbed at least a couple of notches, lending credence to the claims made by old-timers.
Mehrotra, however, steers clear of hazarding a guess, maintaining, "Changes in lifestyles, the urban landscape, and other factors are evident, but an in-depth study is required to scientifically ascertain the cause leading to the current weather pattern."
Meanwhile, the first of the seasonal wheat crops from nearby areas arrived at the city’s food grain markets on Wednesday, even as those in late-sowing regions of the district said they are keeping a close watch on their fields in the face of the weather. Most of the city outskirts are lush with miles of wheat crops that remain green until the grain reaches its optimal size before being dried by the early summer heat.