Photo: Niharika Kulkarni/AFP via Getty Images.
People fill up their bottles from a water tank on a hot summer day in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
We are all experiencing a new level of heat wave.Where I go in the summer, sea breezes used to be enough to cool us down, but no more. Some places, however, are experiencing the new intensity more than others. Parts of India, for example, were pretty hot in the first place, and global warming has made it worse.
Charlotte Steiner, Sameer Kwatra, and Prima Madan write at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) about new Heat Action Plans (HAPs) in parts of India.
“As India grapples with yet another season of intense heat, the cities of Churu, Rajasthan, and Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, are taking action to strengthen local preparedness and resilience. These cities launched their comprehensive Heat Action Plans (HAPs) in May of this year. Developed in collaboration with city authorities, health experts, and [NRDC] partners — Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) and Indian Institute of Public Health-Gandhinagar (IIPHG) — the Churu Heat Action Plan and Varanasi Heat Action Plan represent a significant milestone. …
“For Varanasi and Churu, building resilience to extreme heat is critical. Varanasi, a city of significant cultural and spiritual importance, gets more than 85 million tourists and pilgrims every year and has been grappling with worsening heat waves, year over year. In 2024, the city recorded a scorching 47.2 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) — the highest temperature in 140 years. Churu, often referred to as the gateway to the Thar Desert, is not only one of the hottest places in India, but it is also particularly at risk for extreme heat events. …
“Historically, HAPs did not include climate projections to highlight the future increase in temperatures to assess risk. However, without concrete data on future projections, it’s hard for city officials and policy makers to move from planning to long-term action. Including robust climate analysis in HAPs strengthens the scientific credibility of the HAP, as well as helping city officials and urban planners to justify budget allocations for long-term heat resilience. It also builds a case for investment in public health and infrastructure to plan for not just saving lives today but reducing the risk over the long run.
“Both the Churu and Varanasi HAPs include tailored climate analysis in addition to a detailed assessment of historical trends (typically included in HAPs), highlighting rising baseline temperatures during both the day and night. The climate analysis for the two cities revealed that, by 2049, the temperatures in Churu are projected to increase by approximately 3.89 degrees Celsius and in Varanasi, by an additional 3.29 degrees Celsius. This could imply more days above 45 degrees Celsius, longer heat waves, and more nighttime heat stress. These HAPs also incorporate the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Heat Index, which combines air temperature and relative humidity to indicate how hot it actually feels to the human body and thereby highlight the human thermal discomfort more realistically.
“Based on hyperlocal analysis, these HAPs also identify specific hot spot areas or account for localized vulnerabilities; they also include ward-level geographic information system (GIS) spatial vulnerability assessments, offering a detailed view of how extreme heat impacts different parts of each city differently. These assessments will help local authorities target interventions more effectively and equitably as they work on implementing each HAP. …
“Timely early warnings, joint response protocols, and localized capacity building are essential to reducing heat-related morbidity and mortality and maintaining critical services during peak summer months. Keeping up with this expectation, the Churu and Varanasi plans embed institutional accountability by outlining a detailed stakeholder responsibility matrix. This framework defines clear roles, timelines, and coordination mechanisms across state, district, and municipal levels, ensuring that each actor — from government departments to civil society — knows when and how to act.” More at the nonprofit NRDC, here.
NRDC articles are quite technical and full of data charts, but even I can understand the drift, and I hope you find it interesting. I think every town in the world is going to need a HAP.
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