Heat, dust - and smoke

It's official: the past week has seen the hottest day ever recorded in Dehradun, at 40.8°. Even up here in Mussoorie it reached 34° (that's over 93° in oldspeak). With no rain for weeks, that all adds up to a difficult time all round. Water is scarce around Mussoorie; although Woodstock has installed a full backup system, pumping a supply from Midlands stream, we still need to be very careful, and water is turned off for part of the day to conserve supplies.

More worrying is the increased risk - and prevalence - of forest fires. Some years ago we lost a house on campus as a result of a fire, and alarm bells have been ringing for the last couple of weeks, although thankfully there have only been minor outbreaks so far on the campus. The situation further out in Tehri Garhwal is, however, more worrying. From the terraces of Woodstock houses at night you can see up to eight or ten fires buring on the distant hills, and valleys are full of smoke during the day. Even at this distance we wake up in the night with the smell of smoke in our bedrooms. According to a recent report, over 800 fires have been recorded in the district, affecting over 1800 hectares of forest. I took a bike ride out last Friday and took these photos from just past Kaplani school, just 5 kilometers from the school gate - Pete Wildman.