90 percent of India, entire Delhi in 'danger zone' of heatwave impacts, claims study

Heatwaves in India are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change with over 90 percent of the country in the extremely cautious or danger zone of their impacts according to a new studyThe study conducted by Ramit Debnath and colleagues at the University of Cambridge also revealed that Delhi is particularly vulnerable to severe heatwave impacts though its recent state action plan for climate change does not reflect thisIt suggested that heatwaves have impeded Indias progress towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals SDGs more significantly than previously thought and that the current assessment metrics may not fully capture the impacts of heatwaves linked to climate change on the countryHeatwaves claimed more than 17000 lives in 50 years in India according to a paper authored by M Rajeevan former secretary of Ministry of Earth Sciences along with scientists Kamaljit Ray S S Ray R K Giri and A P DimriThe paper published in 2021 said there were 706 heatwave incidents in the country from 19712019Thirteen people died from heatstroke at a Maharashtra government award function in Navi Mumbai on Sunday making it one of the highest death tolls from a single heatwaverelated event in the countrys historyTo assess Indias climate vulnerability and the potential impact of climate change on SDG progress researchers at the University of Cambridge conducted an analytical evaluation of the countrys heat index with its climate vulnerability indexThe heat index HI is a measure of how hot it feels to the human body taking into account both temperature and humidity The climate vulnerability index CVI is a composite index that uses various indicators to account for socioeconomic livelihood and biophysical factors to study the impact of heatwaveThe researchers accessed a publicly available dataset on statelevel climate vulnerability indicators from the governments National Data and Analytics Platform to classify severity categoriesThey then compared Indias progress in SDGs over 20 years 20012021 with extreme weatherrelated mortality from 20012021The study showed that more than 90 percent of India is in the extremely cautious or danger range of heatwave impacts through HI otherwise considered low or moderate vulnerability through CVI States that were categorized as low in CVI rankings were found to be in danger HI categories indicating that heatwaves put more people at extreme climate risk across India than estimated by CVIAlso read Kharghar heatstroke tragedy lsquoI had a near death experiencersquoThe authors concluded that the use of CVI may underestimate the actual burden of climate change concerning heat and suggested that India should consider reassessing its climate vulnerabilities to meet the SDGsThey warned that if India fails to address the impact of heatwaves immediately it could slow progress towards achieving sustainable development goalsThe study also highlighted that the current heataction plans designed and implemented according to the Delhi governments vulnerability assessment do not include HI estimations which is concerning since even the low climatevulnerable areas in Delhi are at high heatwave risksThe high intensity of development in Central East West and NorthEast districts can further elevate the HI risks through heat island formation it saidThe authors said some of the critical variables in Delhi that will aggravate heatrelated vulnerabilities include concentration of slum population and overcrowding in high HI areas lack of access to basic amenities like electricity water and sanitation nonavailability of immediate healthcare and health insurance poor condition of housing and dirty cooking fuel biomass kerosene and coalThe threshold for a heatwave is met when the maximum temperature of a station reaches at least 40 degrees Celsius in the plains at least 37 degrees Celsius in coastal areas and at least 30 degrees Celsius in hilly regions and the departure from normal is at least 45 degrees CelsiusEarlier this month the India Meteorological Department predicted abovenormal maximum temperatures for most parts of the country from April to June except parts of the northwest and the peninsular regionsAbovenormal heatwave days are expected in most parts of central east and northwest India during this periodIn 2023 India experienced its hottest February since recordkeeping began in 1901 However abovenormal rainfall in March kept temperatures in checkMarch 2022 was the warmest ever and the third driest in 121 years The year also saw the countrys thirdwarmest April since 1901In India about 75 percent of workers around 380 million people experience heatrelated stressA report by the McKinsey Global Institute warns that if this continues by 2030 the country could lose between 25 percent to 45 percent of its Gross Domestic Product GDP per yearThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its 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