Over the past two decades, Chennai has weathered a tsunami, repeated floods, and now, according to a new study, a rapidly worsening mix of heat and rain. Heatwave-preconditioned extreme rainfall events in the Chennai Metropolitan Area have nearly tripled over four decades, rising from an average of 1.2 events a year between 1982 and 1991 to 3.2 events a year between 2012 and 2021. When a heatwave comes before the rain, the same study finds, the population exposed to flooding rises elevenfold and the number of buildings affected rises seven-fold. A separate assessment projects that heatwave days in the city…

On September 6, a five-storey boys' Paying Guest (PG) accommodation collapsed in Satya Niketan, near Delhi University's South Campus, leaving seven people dead. This video looks beyond the single building to ask how the neighbourhood reached this point. Delhi has had a formal planning system since the DDA was set up in 1957 and the first Master Plan followed in 1962. Yet Satya Niketan has grown into a dense student housing hub. Officials say the collapsed building had permission for only the ground plus first floors. Ayush Anilal, an architect, studied the area for his thesis. He explains how intensely…