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Expanding Heat Resilient Cities Across India

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In recent weeks, temperatures have spiked in the lead up to the monsoon across India. People, especially the most vulnerable—children, the elderly and the poor—have suffered in the scorching heat. Deaths have been widely reported this year. And over the past four years more than, over 4,600 people have died from extreme heat, per the Indian government. Climate change is driving temperatures higher and increasing the frequency and severity of heat waves.

Faced with those challenges, cities, states and the national government are taking concrete action to prepare and protect their local communities. For example, drawing on lessons from the ground-breaking Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan, 17 cities and 9 states have adopted, or are developing, heat action plans in India this year.

Also, at the national level, the Indian Meteorological Department has stepped up with expanded forecasts to over 300 cities, and issued an early heat “outlook” in February. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) issued new national guidelines and television advertisements in local languages focused on protecting communities from extreme heat.

The 17 cities that have developed heat action plans are: Ahmedabad in Gujarat, Nagpur, Gondia, Chandrapur, Nanded, Akola, and Jalgaon in Maharashtra, as well as Bhubaneswar, Puri, Koraput, and Baleshwar in Odisha; along with new plans that have been launched or are under development in key cities in 2017, including Vijayawada/Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh, Rajkot and Surat in Gujarat, Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, Rahat in Uttar Pradesh and Hyderabad in Telangana. The nine Indian states that have adopted or are developing state-wide Heat Action Plans in 2017 are: Odisha, Telangana, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Haryana.

Next, this Friday (9th June), NRDC’s India team and partners are leading a workshop for journalists in Ahmedabad, and highlighting a new set of resources that demonstrate what communities and residents can do to protect themselves from the deadly heat.

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