Expect the worst

Heat waves are about to singe India. But most states don’t have their action plans ready as of now

March is the new May: Northern and western India reel due to scorching summer’. This headline, which appeared in Hindustan Times on Thursday, sums up the coming challenge: Searing heat waves are going to singe India. The indications are already there: Vast swathes of northern and western parts of the country are reeling under near heat wave conditions with weather experts expressing concerns over the sweltering temperatures that have shot past 40 degree Celsius in the first few weeks of summer. The searing temperatures come on the back of the hottest summer in a century in 2016, which killed 550 people and left not enough food to eat or water to drink in parts of an area that holds about 25% of the country’s 1.2 billion people.

Expecting the worse this year, the National Disaster Management Authority has already directed states to brace for a hot summer and has said that the ‘Heat Wave Action Plan’ must be implemented. Data show that there has been an increasing trend of heat waves in India over the past several years. Heat wave killed about 3,000 people in 1998 and more than 2000 in 2002. It caused over 2,000 deaths in 1998 in Odisha and more than 1,200 deaths in 2002 in southern India. More than 2,400 people died in the heat wave of 2015. Heat wave also caused the death of cattle and wildlife besides affecting animals in various zoos in India. Yet most Indian cities are yet to implement the National Disaster Management Authority’s heat wave guidelines that can help them prepare a management plan.

It is time to devise a national-level strategy and plan to combat this disaster. A comprehensive heat preparedness and response requires involvement from not only government authorities but also non-governmental organisation and civil society. The first step would be to map vulnerability assessment in order to identify the areas and people that will be worst affected by heat waves.