Many often wonder what possibly could be the reason for the precariously low celilings in old Ranchi homes. Those who have been in Ranchi long enough inform that residents of the city in the 50s and 60s never thought they, or their children, would ever need to have the ceilings any higher. Fans were then not needed in what was the summer capital of united Bihar.

Things have taken an immense turnaround since the mid-20th century. The Bariatu hills no longer play home to the cool breeze that used to freshen up Panchvati Housing Colony and other residential areas across the Bariatu road only a few years ago. The climatic conditions in Ranchi, however, is nothing to write home about anymore with the mercury competing with the levels it has hit in Patna, Gaya and Calcutta and other cities.

With the blazing sun that has been beating down on the state capital in the last few years and the summer setting in concerningly early this year, ACs, coolers and, not to mention, fans have become a necessity for the residents of Ranchi.

Experts attribute this drastic change in Ranchi’s weather, particularly around Bariatu hills, to deforestation, industrialisation and increase in the number of concrete buildings. Meteorological experts would, however, have a difficult time explaining the situation to 65-year-old Rasamoy Dutta. A lover of the hills, the elderly gentleman has closely watched the changing face of Bariatu.

Dutta da, as he is known in Jaiprakash Nagar, started his tryst with Ranchi in 1962 as a lab technician with Rajendra Medical College and Hospital, now known as Rims, and ended his career at the same place with his retiremnet in 1998. He helped setting up the famous J. Sharan lab near Rims and worked there until he hung his boots. Retirement, however, has had no effect on his enthusuiam and zeal or his love for walking in the sylvan surroundings of the hills.

“In the 70s, even walking was a difficult excercise in Bariatu hills. Getting the feet to grip on pathways with the strong gale coming from the hills through foliage and lashing at faces was an ardourous task,” Dutta da recalls. “At times, the breeze also threatened to sweep away the motorcycles off the roads in summer noons. Walking in the hills, capped with thick bushes and small trees, was frightening as it used to be deserted,” he says.

Dutta da blames the mindless urbanisation and unplanned constructions for the fall of Ranchi’s ideal climate.”See how Shreya Enclave, the colony dotted with multiple houses, has been constructed between the two hillocks,” he explains. He recollects how people began digging the hill’s base and started buliding houses in the early 80s. Now, umpteen residential complex surropund the Bariatu hills and many caves of the hill has been remodelled into human dwellings.

“These settlements, dotted with highrises around the hills, block the wind’s path and and stops it from touching the roads and colonies across it,” Dutta da says. “The wind has become weaker as buildings have been erected over the years.”

Human settlements have come up on Bariatu hills in blatant violation of the law framed to prtotect the hills and forests from encroachment . I wonder how the people can still buid huts and houses atop the hills, particularly near Bariatu Basti, and that too under the noise of the authorities concerned. Ranchi, now with the chief minister, chief secretary and other top functionaries living here to ensure protection of the forests, hills, natural resources and environment, is yet to get the benefits of becoming a state capital and by the time it does, it may be a trifle too late.

Nalin Verma The Author is the Ranchi based special correspondent of the Telegraph