INDIA'S ESCALATING HEAT CRISIS: PREPARING OUR CITIES AND PROTECTING THE VULNERABLE

The heatwave story is no longer just about temperature: it's about whom it affects and how unprepared we still are India is heating up and it's not just the usual suspects like Delhi or Rajasthan bearing the brunt.

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Places once known for their temperate climates, like Bengaluru and Shimla, are now registering record-breaking temperatures. This shift is more than just a summer inconvenience; it's a public health emergency in slow motion.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), March 2025 was among the hottest months in over a century, with maximum temperatures in parts of south India breaching 40°C a first in several decades. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has also forecasted that 2025 could be among the warmest years on record, owing to the compounding effects of climate change and El Niño.

But the heatwave story is no longer just about temperature: it's about whom it affects and how unprepared we still are.

Going from pleasant to perilous

Traditionally moderate cities are now facing climate stress due to a cocktail of urban expansion, loss of green cover, and vehicular pollution. A recent study published in Science of the Total Environment (2024) highlights how urban land use changes in Bengaluru have intensified the urban heat island effect, making nighttime temperatures dangerously high and reducing natural cooling periods. Shimla, once a summer escape, has also seen temperature spikes due to rampant construction and ecological degradation. This is a particularly worrying trend, because these cities were never designed with extreme heat in mind.

For our youth, rising temperatures can affect school attendance and learning outcomes, apart from prompting heat-related school closures in coming months if the heat soars unabated. Infrastructure, housing, and healthcare systems in such regions too, are ill-equipped to handle the scale of the crisis unfolding.