Heat­wave crisis needs a vis­ion, not just policy

The NDMA must lead the devel­op­ment of com­pre­hens­ive frame­works that move bey­ond relief to sup­port invest­ments in heat mit­ig­a­tion and resi­li­ence

THE INDIA Met­eor­o­lo­gical Depart­ment has warned that the sum­mer of 2026 could be par­tic­u­larly intense, with many parts of the coun­try likely to exper­i­ence an above-nor­mal num­ber of heat­wave days. Heat­waves are unlike sud­den dis­asters such as cyc­lones or flash floods. They unfold slowly, often build­ing over days or weeks. This means they require sus­tained plan­ning rather than only emer­gency response.

Recog­nising this, many Indian cit­ies, dis­tricts and states have developed Heat action Plans (Haps). These plans play an import­ant role in coordin­at­ing responses among gov­ern­ment depart­ments through early warn­ing sys­tems, pub­lic advisor­ies, and emer­gency meas­ures. In sev­eral cit­ies, they have helped reduce heat-related mor­tal­ity and ill­ness.

However, as tem­per­at­ures con­tinue to rise, India now needs to move bey­ond shortterm responses and begin invest­ing in longterm strategies to cool cit­ies in a sus­tain­able way. In this con­text, the recent recom­mend­a­tion of the 16th Fin­ance Com­mis­sion to include heat­waves in the list of nation­ally noti­fied dis­asters could be a turn­ing point. By recom­mend­ing their inclu­sion, the Com­mis­sion acknow­ledges that cli­mate change has fun­da­ment­ally altered India’s dis­aster land­scape.

This reclas­si­fic­a­tion changes the fin­an­cial and insti­tu­tional sup­port avail­able to states. Until now, states could use up to 10 per cent of their State Dis­aster Response Fund (SDRF) to provide imme­di­ate relief for local dis­asters, includ­ing heat­waves, provided they had noti­fied them as state-spe­cific dis­asters. With heat­waves recom­men­ded for inclu­sion under the Dis­aster Man­age­ment act, states would now be able to seek sup­port from the lar­ger National Dis­aster Risk Man­age­ment Fund as well as their State Dis­aster Risk Man­age­ment Funds (SDRMF). This expands fiscal space not only for relief meas­ures but also for fin­an­cing longer-term resi­li­ence and mit­ig­a­tion ini­ti­at­ives.

While the new clas­si­fic­a­tion opens up fin­an­cial resources, the cur­rent policy frame­work remains lim­ited. This is where the real chal­lenge lies. Most Heat action Plans con­tinue to focus primar­ily on short-term meas­ures such as alerts, aware­ness cam­paigns and emer­gency response. They do little to address the struc­tural drivers of heat vul­ner­ab­il­ity — poor urban design, heat-absorb­ing con­struc­tion mater­i­als, declin­ing green cover, inef­fi­cient cool­ing sys­tems, and unequal access to thermal com­fort.

To util­ise the avail­able funds effect­ively, India must strengthen its policy frame­works and provide cit­ies and states with clearer guid­ance on long-term heat resi­li­ence strategies. The National Dis­aster Man­age­ment author­ity must lead the devel­op­ment of com­pre­hens­ive frame­works that move bey­ond relief to sup­port invest­ments in heat mit­ig­a­tion and resi­li­ence, such as cli­mate­sens­it­ive plan­ning, expan­sion of urban green and blue infra­struc­ture, improved build­ing design, infra­struc­ture resi­li­ence and sus­tain­able cool­ing solu­tions.

Equally import­ant is build­ing insti­tu­tional capa­city that enables local gov­ern­ments to design and imple­ment projects that reduce heat risks over time. Stronger coordin­a­tion between urban plan­ning and dis­aster man­age­ment insti­tu­tions, and bet­ter tech­nical sup­port for cit­ies, will be crit­ical to ensure that funds are effect­ively util­ised.

The funds are now on the table. What India needs next is a policy vis­ion for cooler, safer and more resi­li­ent cit­ies.