Tackling extreme heat risks in India

Delhi recorded its fifth consecutive day of heat wave on Monday. The city recorded a maximum temperature of 42.6 degrees Celsius (°C), seven degrees above normal, making it the hottest April day since 2017, when the temperature touched 43.2°C on April 21. This year has been scorching with no western disturbance, which brings cooling pre-monsoon rain in the region, since February-end.

As the climate crisis fuels more frequent, intense, and longer heatwaves, record-breaking temperatures are becoming a significant health threat, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report highlighted. Extreme heat exposures, already a public health emergency in India that killed an estimated 46,600 people aged 65 or older in 2019, continue to worsen.

The good news is that India Meteorological Department now offers district-level vulnerability maps on heatwaves. The Centre is also working with 23 heatwave-prone states to implement individual Heat Action Plans. A robust public health policy response to extreme heat events must include early warning systems, outreach strategies to improve community awareness, and tailored measures to reach vulnerable populations. As the climate crisis heightens extreme heat risks in India, authorities must work to further strengthen these plans and adapt them in consultation with local communities. After all, climate resilience is, in part, about asking people to think differently and see extreme heat and other climate challenges as solvable public health issues.