Indian cities 'not ready to tackle soaring temperatures'

Leaders urged to act as study finds vulnerable communities are at risk

A woman tries to protect her baby from the sun during a hot afternoon on the outskirts of New Delhi. EPA

Indian cities are not ready to tackle soaring temperatures and heatwaves and need to act to protect the most vulnerable communities, a think tank in New Delhi has warned.

India has experienced unprecedented temperatures for the last few years and the India Meteorological Department has forecast intense heatwaves across the country between March and May of this year.

A heatwave is a period of unusually hot weather that typically lasts two or more days, with temperatures exceeding the historical averages for a given area.

The Centre for Policy Research (CPR) report — How is India Adapting to Heatwaves? — found that as many as 18 states across the country were not prepared.

The CPR analysed Heat Action Plans (HAP) across 18 states from 2017 onwards. They reviewed nine HAPs at city level, 13 at district level and 15 at state level.

HAPs are a set of guidelines prepared by the state, district and city governments to help prepare, respond to and recover from heatwaves. They look at the provision of health care and financial and infrastructural resources for the most vulnerable communities.

The CPR said the framework to tackle extreme heatwaves in India was failing in “identifying and targeting vulnerable groups.” It also found that the plans were not updated regularly and there were no available budgets in most cases.

Many fall into the vulnerable category when it comes to rising temperatures, including the elderly, children, pregnant and lactating women, those with cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses, and people with physical disabilities. Also particularly at risk are those engaged in outdoor, casual or informal work, such as construction workers, industrial workers, street vendors, waste pickers, farmers, and rickshaw drivers.

“We analysed 37 heat action plans … Only 11 of 37 HAPs discuss funding sources. Of these, eight asked implementing departments to self-allocate resources, indicating a serious funding constraint,” the report said.

“Twenty-five out of 37 HAPs (unclear in a further five) reviewed recognise specific occupations and livelihoods groups as being particularly vulnerable to excessive heat exposure … Further, it is unclear whether these HAPs are being updated periodically and whether this is based on evaluation data.”

The report also found that most of the action plans reviewed were not designed for the local context.

“Only 10 out of 37 HAPs reviewed seem to establish locally-defined temperature thresholds, though it is unclear whether they take local risk multipliers (such as humidity, hot nights, duration of continuous heat, among others) into account to declare a heatwave,” the report said.

The country's first heat plan was made in western Ahmedabad city after more than 800 people died in blistering heatwaves surpassing 48°C in 2010.

The aim was to protect vulnerable communities through initiatives such as awareness programmes, specialist training for healthcare professionals and installing roofs made of cooling materials such as coconut husks and paper waste.

The report comes at a time when the country's population of 1.4 billion is facing frequent heatwaves and is bracing for excessive heat this summer.

India's north-west last month recorded its hottest February since records began in 1901.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi began a review of the country’s preparedness to deal with hot weather, and the readiness of its states and hospital infrastructure for emergencies. The result of that review is pending, apart from a request for more awareness campaigns.

Last year, the country struggled through one of the hottest summers in almost 125 years, with several parts of the country blasted by scorching heat. In Delhi, the temperature rose above 49°C in May — the highest recorded in the capital — which was preceded by the hottest March on record in the country. Delhi does not have a heat action plan.

India saw a 55 per cent rise in deaths due to extreme heat between 2000-2004 and 2017-2021, a study published in the medical journal, The Lancet, found.