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Summer arrived early in India this year, and with it the dread of heatwaves.

Temperatures in Delhi exceeded 35 degrees celsius in the first week of March, the earliest they had done so since 2011. In parts of the Mumbai metropolitan region, heat warnings were issued as temperatures reached 40 degrees celsius.

Often known as an invisible disaster, heat is increasingly and evidently affecting the lives of those who live in India’s urban areas.

During a recent Dialogue Earth panel at Mumbai Climate Week, heat specialists warned that not only is the death toll rising now, but India’s rapidly growing cities are not being built to deal with the heat that’s coming. They said the most vulnerable people in these cities desperately need more attention and help.

These high temperatures are fuelled by the urban heat island effect that keeps city temperatures higher than the surrounding countryside.

Things are likely to get worse in the future according to recent research on several Indian cities. Mean urban land temperatures are projected to rise by an additional 45% compared to surrounding rural areas.

The health risks of this heat are alarming. The India Meteorological Department recorded 10,545 heat-related deaths between 2000 and 2020. In the same period, the National Disaster Management Authority recorded 17,767, and the National Crime Records Bureau...

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