Five rules we keep

Each one is there because we got it wrong once. They hold on every map, from a heat forecast to a week of ships at sea.

Weather is hours old. Field surveys are weeks old. Official case counts can be a year behind. We never blend them into one “latest” figure.

A district with no reports may simply have no one looking. We say “unknown”, never “clear”.

Until our warnings are checked against real case records, every page says so at the top.

“Wetter than seven of the last eight Septembers” means more than an abstract score, so that is how we say it.

A gap in the record is shown as a gap, never quietly filled in with a zero.

How a map is made

the same five steps for every atlas

An open sourceRead from the body that publishes it, and credited by name on every page that uses it.
One register of placesEvery district and panchayat is keyed to India's Local Government Directory, so a place reads the same on every map.
A reading or a modelEach atlas's Method page says how the number is made and where it is weak.
Checked every nightA browser opens each map at laptop and phone sizes and checks its key, its figures and its dates.
On the page, with its dateEvery figure says when it is from, so an old number looks old.