The silent disaster in Indian Cities

The world has already begun to witness horrifying effects of climate change as it has greatly disturbed the existing weather patterns. Several reports from various organisations, including India Meteorological Department (IMD), show that the frequency and ferocity of all natural disasters like cyclones as well as heatwaves in and around the Indian sub-continent are on the rise with each passing year

Heatwave is one such disaster that has recently disturbed the lives of people in various regions of the world including the United States of America, Europe, Northern China, and Central China. Its fangs have been sharpened by climate change and rising global temperature. Going by the definition of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), a heatwave means a period of five or more consecutive days during which the daily maximum temperature exceeds the average maximum temperature by five degrees Celsius or more. This excess atmospheric temperature causes physiological stress on the body of humans and animals that sometimes leads to death, especially in the urban landscape.
The effects and implications of the heatwave are often overlooked due to a lack of visual damage like the one caused by floods, landslides and cyclones. However, scientific studies paint a picture opposite to popular opinion. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates, more than 1,66,000 lives were lost due to heatwaves around the world during 1998-2017. It includes the 70,000 deaths that occurred during the European heatwave incident of 2003. As per the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), heat/sunstroke has emerged as the fourth major cause of ‘Death Due to Forces of Nature’ in India, which has claimed the lives of 530 people in 2020.

Causes and Implications of Heatwaves

The phenomenon called heatwave is not new to India and the world. It is a recurring event that occurs generally in peak summers. However, due to the rise in average annual global mean temperature, its intensity has increased significantly. These conditions are catastrophic to the world, especially to the European nations that are accustomed to temperate climatic conditions. Recent incidents of heatwaves in Europe resulted in the melting of the road signals, railway tracks and even the asphalt on the road. While in 2021, as many as 500 lives were claimed by the “heat dome” in Western Canada and North West part of USA. It shows how ignorance has made the world vulnerable to such new forms of extreme weather events.
Apart from climate change, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of India has identified several other anthropogenic causes that are exacerbating the situation. Some of the major causes are the unplanned development of urban areas that has led to the creation of concrete jungles devoid of tree covers, thus increasing the climatic forcing of Indian cities.
The second major cause is altering the land-use pattern, where a majority of water bodies around the cities, such as wetlands and lakes, have been drained to erect infrastructure to serve the needs of the growing urban population. Cumulatively, these factors are making Indian cities vulnerable to new challenges such as Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects, which could pose a greater threat to the lives of people in Indian cities.
The NDMA’s data shows that heatwaves have claimed the lives of 24,223 people during the period spanning from 1992 to 2015, a period that coincides with the growth of urbanisation in India. Yet, the increasing threat to our cities was overlooked and it was not included in the list of notified disasters in India, meaning that it wasn’t considered a disaster at all. Now as the global temperature increases and so does the frequency of incidents of heatwaves, the vulnerability of our cities caused by our very own ignorance is being exposed.
As per the Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India (ADSI) 2020 report of NCRB, ‘Heat/Sun stroke’ has emerged as the second leading cause of death ‘due to forces of nature, in Indian cities’, the first one being ‘Exposure to cold’. A maximum number of deaths due to ‘Heat/Sun stroke’ have been reported in the city of Ludhiana (21), Dhanbad (5), Ghaziabad (2), Ahmedabad (1) and Hyderabad (1). It is not just fatal for humans but also leads to the death of birds, animals and other wildlife, while in rural and forest areas it makes the landscape vulnerable to incidents of forest fires.

Mitigation Efforts

Ahmedabad became the first city to develop and adopt a city level Heat Action Plan in India. However, it was prepared only after the city suffered massive casualties during the heatwave incident of 2010. Later, many states like Bihar, Telangana, Odisha and Maharashtra came up with their own set of plans.
The Government of India, on the other hand, sprang into action in the year 2016, with the issuance of the first-ever national guidelines on heat risk reduction. Later, in the year 2019, the National Guidelines for Preparation of Action Plan – Prevention and Management of Heatwave was prepared by the NDMA and it was adopted by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. The new set of guidelines aims to provide a skeleton framework around which cities could develop their region-specific plans for implementation.
The key aspects of the action plan include developing an early warning system based on new communication systems, and developing inter-department and interagency coordination for which the IMD under the Aegis of the Ministry of Earth Science, Government of India has been designated as the nodal agency. It provides all kinds of weather-related information and warns the citizens and administration of any upcoming extreme weather event.
Regarding heatwaves, the Ministry provides a colour-coded alert throughout the nation. As per this, Green Alert signifies a Normal Day, Yellow stands for Heat Alert, Orange means Severe Heat Alert and Red means Extreme Heat Alert, based on which the administrative agencies could take appropriate response measures.
The other key aspect of the guidelines is to tackle heat induced disorders by generating awareness amongst the vulnerable communities regarding the Do’s and Don’ts with the help of media tools. Additionally, the health institutions in the country have been instructed to prepare detailed action plans to deal with heat related illnesses, before the onset of hotter months. The in-charge of the hospital is given instructions to ensure that hospital staff is trained to deal with any contingency inside the hospital, and a Rapid Response Team (RRT) should be formed to deal with any contingency outside the hospital. They should also ensure the availability of sufficient staff, beds, medicines, IV fluids and equipment in the hospital. The hospitals should also establish proper communication channels with the other nearby facilities to share the excess patient load during the peak season.
The NDMA’s guidelines also include a provision for the assessment of the impact once the heat spell passes. During the assessment process, all the data related to the temperature, humidity and other phenomenon linked to the heatwaves and feedback from all stakeholders should be compiled to identify the gaps and loopholes in the guidelines. Any such deficiency would then be eliminated to better deal with any such spell of heatwaves thus mitigating its ill effects on the lives of our citizens.

The NDMA’s data shows that heatwaves have claimed the lives of 24,223 people during the period spanning from 1992 to 2015, a period that coincides with the growth of urbanisation in India. Yet, the increasing threat to our cities was overlooked and it was not included in the list of notified disasters in India, meaning that it wasn’t considered a disaster at all