Now this might shock you but there is this town called ‘Titlagarh’ in Odisha, India, where no one wants to go out in the daytime and everything that happens on streets happens only after 6pm in the evening.

Generally, people in India get to their work at 10 am in the morning. Then why is it different in this town? What is the reason behind people checking in time and limiting themselves from coming out in the day hours?

Here’s the Reason:

That’s because this is the hottest town in India. A small town of 60,000 people in western Odisha’s Bolangir district, Titlagarh remains the hottest place in the country due to its topography. Titlagarh, which is about 450 km from Bhubaneswar is surrounded by major hillocks that block the winds from coming in.

Hence, the residents of Titlagarh choose to stay inside their homes after 10 am and the streets remain empty with not even a stray dog in sight. The roads are deserted and the shops are closed just like the conditions one faces in a curfew. People try to finish their chores by 10am, rush into their homes and venture out only after sundown at 6pm.

To fight with heat strokes, people wear only white clothes and wear white wet cloth (Gamcha) to save themselves from the scorching heat waves. The only thing they eat is ‘Pakhal’, which is traditionally believed to cool the body. Pakhal is semi-fermented stale rice soaked in water which is supposed to keep them safe from getting heat strokes. It is a traditional Odiya dish served with rice, curd, cucumber and cumin seeds along with fried onions and roasted veggies and for drinking they live on buttermilk and water which again helps them cool off the stomach.

However, staying indoors doesn’t solve much as intermittent power cuts and low voltages, further adds to their discomfort. The heat is too much, so after some time, even their rarely working air conditioners and coolers stop working up to their capacity.

In a town like this where there is no option to cool off oneself, the water crises is also raising the anger of people living in the town. They are dependent on water tankers as the river (Tel river) passing through the town has dried up. As the town sits on a rocky bed, groundwater is difficult to draw. The ground level of water is also falling down day by day, resulting in water scarcity where people are digging up holes near the river bank to find a drop of water to drink.

Titlagarh — locally known as Tatlagarh or sizzling place for being a heat island has recorded 50.1 degrees Celsius (that is enough to burn the leaves of any plant) on June 3, 2003. Recently on April 22, the town was recorded to have 48.5 degrees temperature which is the hottest in the entire nation this year.