India's nights are warming and humid heat is spreading, while official counts of heat deaths stay small beside every study of deaths above normal. Researchers, reporters and the state record who heat falls on, what it costs, and what protects people.https://lifeinindia.org/Our own words and data are licensed CC BY 4.0, and our conversations are in the public domain. Quotations, first-person accounts and photographs belong to their owners. https://lifeinindia.org/licence/https://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2014-heat-related-mortality-in-indiahttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2014-heat-related-mortality-in-india<p>The first study to document how heat and death move together in an Indian city, using deaths from all causes rather than cause-specific records. Deaths in Ahmedabad in May 2010 ran far above the average for the same weeks of May 2009 and May 2011, and rose with the daily maximum temperature.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Gulrez Shah Azhar and Dileep Mavalankar and Amruta Nori-Sarma and Ajit Rajiva and Priya Dutta and Anjali Jaiswal and Perry Sheffield and Kim Knowlton and Jeremy J. Hess.</p> <p><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0091831&type=printable">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2017-increasing-probability-of-mortality-duringhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2017-increasing-probability-of-mortality-during<p>A study of summer temperatures and heat deaths in India from 1960 to 2009. Its model finds that a rise of half a degree in average summer temperature goes with a 146% rise in the probability of a heatwave that kills more than a hundred people. Even moderate shifts in the average, it suggests, may bring large increases in heat deaths.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Omid Mazdiyasni and Amir AghaKouchak and Steven J. Davis and Shahrbanou Madadgar and Ali Mehran and Elisa Ragno and Mojtaba Sadegh and Ashmita Sengupta and Subimal Ghosh and C. T. Dhanya and Mohsen Niknejad.</p> <p><a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5462497/">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2018-the-future-of-cooling-opportunitieshttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2018-the-future-of-cooling-opportunities<p>The International Energy Agency’s study of the coming boom in air conditioning and what it will do to electricity systems. India is among the few countries driving the growth, and its share of peak electricity demand that goes to cooling is projected to rise from a tenth to almost half by 2050. Solar power does not match cooling demand that lasts after sunset, so efficient machines and clean power together decide how cleanly that demand is met.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Brian Dean and John Dulac and Trevor Morgan and Uwe Remme.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to International Energy Agency.</p> <p><a href="https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/0bb45525-277f-4c9c-8d0c-9c0cb5e7d525/The_Future_of_Cooling.pdf">The report</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2018-mortality-attributable-to-hot-andhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2018-mortality-attributable-to-hot-and<p>The first study to estimate deaths from hot and cold days in India using deaths sampled from across the country rather than from a few cities. It uses the Million Death Study, in which trained surveyors ask families how a relative died, for medical deaths at all ages from 2001 to 2013. Its finding is a complication this record cannot skip: in those years moderately cold weather was linked to far more deaths than extreme heat.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Sze Hang Fu and Antonio Gasparrini and Peter S. Rodriguez and Prabhat Jha.</p> <p><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002619&type=printable">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2018-building-resilience-to-climate-changehttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2018-building-resilience-to-climate-change<p>One of the first studies to test whether a heat action plan saves lives. Researchers compared deaths in Ahmedabad on hot days in 2007–2010 with those in 2014–2015, after the city’s plan was fully in place. At the highest temperatures the rise in deaths was much smaller after the plan, with the largest drop on the hottest days. It is one city, a short span and an association rather than proof, and the authors call it a pilot.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Jeremy J Hess and Sathish LM and Kim Knowlton and Shubhayu Saha and Priya Dutta and Parthasarathi Ganguly and Abhiyant Tiwari and Anjali Jaiswal and Perry Sheffield and Jayanta Sarkar and S C Bhan and Amit Begda and Tejas Shah and Bhavin Solanki and Dileep Mavalankar.</p> <p><a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6236972/">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2019-working-on-a-warmer-planethttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2019-working-on-a-warmer-planet<p>The International Labour Organization’s estimate of how much work the world loses to heat stress, country by country, with projections for 2030. In Asia and the Pacific, India comes out as the most affected country, and most of its loss falls on agriculture, with construction losing more and more hours. The report converts lost hours into the equivalent of full-time jobs.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Tord Kjellstrom and Nicolas Maître and Catherine Saget and Matthias Otto and Tahmina Karimova.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to International Labour Organization.</p> <p><a href="https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/publication/wcms_711919.pdf">The report</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2020-the-emergence-of-heat-andhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2020-the-emergence-of-heat-and<p>A global search of weather-station records for the most dangerous combinations of heat and humidity. It finds that such humid heat has more than doubled in frequency since 1979, and that a few coastal places have already touched the wet-bulb level long treated as the limit of survival. Eastern coastal India and northwestern India are among the hotspots it names.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Colin Raymond and Tom Matthews and Radley Horton.</p> <p><a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7209987/">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2021-mapping-indias-climate-vulnerability-ahttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2021-mapping-indias-climate-vulnerability-a<p>CEEW’s first district-level assessment of India’s vulnerability to extreme weather, measuring exposure, sensitivity and the capacity to cope with floods, droughts and cyclones. It is here for what it leaves out. The report mentions heatwaves as a slow-onset hazard but does not include heat in its index, though it argues that such an index can steer decisions and money.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Abinash Mohanty and Shreya Wadhawan.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Council on Energy, Environment and Water.</p> <p><a href="https://www.ceew.in/sites/default/files/ceew-study-on-climate-change-vulnerability-index-and-district-level-risk-assessment.pdf">The report</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2021-air-conditioning-and-the-adaptationhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2021-air-conditioning-and-the-adaptation<p>A projection of household air-conditioning in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Mexico around 2040, built from household surveys combined with projected climate and incomes. Ownership in India rises steeply as incomes grow and summers warm, but stays low among the poorest. The authors call the gap between need and access an adaptation cooling deficit.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Filippo Pavanello and Enrica De Cian and Marinella Davide and Malcolm Mistry and Talita Cruz and Paula Bezerra and Dattakiran Jagu and Sebastian Renner and Roberto Schaeffer and André F. P. Lucena.</p> <p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26592-2">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2021-increased-labor-losses-and-decreasedhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2021-increased-labor-losses-and-decreased<p>A global estimate of the hours of heavy outdoor work lost to heat, and of how much of that loss could be recovered by moving work to cooler hours. India loses more hours than any other country, given its large working population, its heat and the share who work in farming and construction. Moving work to the early morning helps less as the world warms, because those hours too grow unsafe for continuous work in much of the tropics.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Luke A. Parsons and Drew Shindell and Michelle Tigchelaar and Yuqiang Zhang and June T. Spector.</p> <p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-27328-y">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2021-evaluating-the-35-c-wethttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2021-evaluating-the-35-c-wet<p>A laboratory test of a well-publicised theoretical limit to human tolerance of heat, a wet-bulb temperature of 35°C. Young, healthy volunteers resting in a heat chamber could not hold their body temperature steady well below that: around 31°C in humid air, and lower still in hot, dry air. The authors conclude that no single threshold fits every climate.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Daniel J. Vecellio and S. Tony Wolf and Rachel M. Cottle and W. Larry Kenney.</p> <p><a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8799385/">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2023-how-is-india-adapting-tohttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2023-how-is-india-adapting-to<p>By the authors’ account the first critical review of India’s heat action plans. They gathered 37 plans written by cities, districts and states between 2016 and 2022 and read them against what a plan needs to work. The plans propose a wide range of measures and mostly follow a common template. Nearly all are poor at identifying and targeting the most vulnerable, few say where the money will come from, and none states its legal authority.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Aditya Valiathan Pillai and Tamanna Dalal.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Centre for Policy Research.</p> <p><a href="https://cprindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Heat-Report_Final_27March-23.pdf">The report</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2023-lethal-heatwaves-are-challenging-indiashttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2023-lethal-heatwaves-are-challenging-indias<p>Three researchers at Cambridge, Caltech and Yale argue that India’s reliance on its Climate Vulnerability Index may understate the impact of heatwaves. Setting a measure of humid heat for April 2022 beside the index, they found more than 90% of the country in the danger ranges, including much that the index rates as of low or moderate vulnerability.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Ramit Debnath and Ronita Bardhan and Michelle L. Bell.</p> <p><a href="https://journals.plos.org/climate/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000156&type=printable">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-impact-of-heatwaves-on-allhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-impact-of-heatwaves-on-all<p>The largest study in India of how heatwaves and deaths move together in cities. Researchers matched daily deaths from all causes in ten cities, from Shimla to Chennai, with daily temperatures, over years between 2008 and 2019 that vary by city, about 3.6 million deaths in all. Two days in a row above a city’s 97th percentile temperature were linked to about 15% more deaths, and the toll came to about 1,116 deaths a year in these ten cities alone.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Jeroen de Bont and Amruta Nori-Sarma and Massimo Stafoggia and Tirthankar Banerjee and Vijendra Ingole and Suganthi Jaganathan and Siddhartha Mandal and Ajit Rajiva and Bhargav Krishna and Itai Kloog and Kevin Lane and Rajesh K. Mall and Abhiyant Tiwari and Yaguang Wei and Gregory A. Wellenius and Dorairaj Prabhakaran and Joel Schwartz and Poornima Prabhakaran and Petter Ljungman.</p> <p><a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11790314/">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-occupational-heat-exposure-doubles-riskhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-occupational-heat-exposure-doubles-risk<p>A report on a study by Chennai’s Sri Ramachandra Institute that followed 800 pregnant women in Tamil Nadu, half of them doing heavy work in the heat on farms, brick kilns, salt pans and building sites. Among women exposed to heat at work, 5% miscarried, against 2% of those in jobs with rest, water and shade. Stillbirth or early birth came to 6.1% against 2.6%, and low birth weight to 8.4% against 4.5%.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Seema Prasad.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Down To Earth.</p> <p><a href="https://www.downtoearth.org.in/health/occupational-heat-exposure-doubles-risk-of-miscarriages-or-stillbirths-95200">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-data-huge-discrepancies-in-datahttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-data-huge-discrepancies-in-data<p>Pavithra K M sets the government’s own heat-death series side by side and finds they do not agree. Between 2009 and 2022 the crime records bureau counted about 15,000 heat-stroke deaths, the disaster authority about 11,000 and the earth sciences ministry about 6,750. The bureau’s and the authority’s counts matched until 2013 and parted ways after; state by state, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab show the widest gaps.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Pavithra K M.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Factly.</p> <p><a href="https://factly.in/data-huge-discrepancies-in-data-on-heat-wave-related-deaths-reported-by-various-agencies-like-ndma-moes-ncrb/">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-ensuring-safety-and-health-athttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-ensuring-safety-and-health-at<p>The International Labour Organization’s survey of how climate change endangers workers, from heat to air pollution and disease, and of the laws countries use to protect them. On heat it counts the world’s exposed workers and the injuries and deaths heat causes at work. Its list of national rules, which it says is not exhaustive, records for India a general duty on employers to protect workers from excessive heat and a numerical limit for factory workrooms set in 1948.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By International Labour Organization.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to International Labour Organization.</p> <p><a href="https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/ILO_SafeDay24_Report_r10_0.pdf">The report</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-urbanization-and-regional-climate-changehttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-urbanization-and-regional-climate-change<p>Two researchers at IIT Bhubaneswar used satellite readings of the ground’s temperature at night for 141 Indian cities from 2003 to 2020. Nights in the cities warmed about twice as fast as across India as a whole, and they link about 38% of the cities’ warming to urban growth itself. The measure is the temperature of the land surface seen from space.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Soumya Satyakanta Sethi and V. Vinoj.</p> <p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44284-024-00074-0">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-cse-study-tracks-heat-wavehttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-cse-study-tracks-heat-wave<p>The Centre for Science and Environment studied air temperature, land surface temperature and humidity in six megacities, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, in the summers from 2001 to April 2024. It finds heat stress rising even where the thermometer is not, because humidity has risen in every climate zone, and that the cities cool less at night than they used to, Kolkata excepted.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Centre for Science and Environment.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Centre for Science and Environment.</p> <p><a href="https://www.cseindia.org/cse-study-tracks-heat-wave-exposes-dangerous-trends-in-india-s-biggest-cities-12205">Read the study summary</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-killer-heats-shadow-indias-labourershttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-killer-heats-shadow-indias-labourers<p>The first part of a Down To Earth series on work in the heat, which visited brick kilns, building sites, factories and homes in Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat; this part is about outdoor workers. At a brick kiln in Faridabad the reporter measured 43°C in May, with a wet-bulb reading of 30°C. One moulder’s family had come there on a contractor’s advance against his labour, and a co-worker lost his wages for the days he was ill.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Shagun.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Down To Earth.</p> <p><a href="https://www.downtoearth.org.in/climate-change/killer-heats-shadow-indias-labourers-on-the-frontlines-face-boiling-temperatures">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-they-just-dropped-dead-uphttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-they-just-dropped-dead-up<p>Soumya Pillai reports from Mirzapur, where on 31 May 2024, at 47°C, 17 government employees on election duty died overnight. Among them were home guards, police officers and cleaning staff, some of whom collapsed at work or after reaching home. The district hospital had one emergency doctor, no oral rehydration salts and too few thermometers. None of the deaths had been confirmed as heat stroke.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Soumya Pillai.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to ThePrint.</p> <p><a href="https://theprint.in/ground-reports/they-just-dropped-dead-up-home-guard-who-saw-3-colleagues-die-cant-forget-those-20-mins/2137075/">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-why-doctors-are-struggling-tohttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-why-doctors-are-struggling-to<p>Tabassum Barnagarwala follows the death of a schoolteacher in Bihar’s Jamui, who collapsed on duty in the 2024 heatwave, to explain why heat deaths go undercounted. Under the national guidelines, a body temperature above 40.6°C at collapse marks heat stroke, but in rural areas the temperature may have fallen by the time the person reaches a big hospital. The tests that could settle the cause are not readily available there, and many doctors consider it safer not to certify heat at all.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Tabassum Barnagarwala.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Scroll.</p> <p><a href="https://scroll.in/article/1069409/why-doctors-are-struggling-to-certify-heat-deaths-even-in-this-brutal-summer">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-seeing-red-india-had-overhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-seeing-red-india-had-over<p>A report on HeatWatch’s count of heatstroke deaths reported in the news in the summer of 2024, which came to roughly twice the health ministry’s figure. The article also reports that 33 polling officers reportedly died of heatstroke in Uttar Pradesh during the general election, and records nights of record warmth in Delhi and Rajasthan.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Nandita Banerji.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Down To Earth.</p> <p><a href="https://www.downtoearth.org.in/climate-change/seeing-red-india-had-over-700-heat-deaths-in-2024-much-higher-than-official-toll-claim-scientists">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-evaluating-heat-health-risk-inhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-evaluating-heat-health-risk-in<p>A ranking of heat risk to health in 37 Indian cities of more than a million people, built from satellite temperatures, humidity, wind, green cover and population density. Chennai and Mumbai rank highest, followed by Kolkata and Ahmedabad, and the authors link a lack of green space to greater vulnerability. The weights given to hazard, exposure and vulnerability are the authors’ own choice, drawn from earlier studies.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Kaushik Mandvikar and Nirmal Kumar and Hitesh Supe and Deepak Singh and Ankita Gupta and Pankaj Kumar and Gowhar Meraj and Inam Danish Khan and Asma Kouser and Santosh Kumar Pandey and Ram Avtar.</p> <p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772655X24000582">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-report-heat-health-preparedness-responsehttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2024-report-heat-health-preparedness-response<p>A report of the National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health, under the health ministry, on its 2024 heat season: warnings, training for doctors, and surveillance of heat illness in public health centres and hospitals. It records tens of thousands of suspected heatstroke cases and 161 confirmed heatstroke deaths. The count should be read with its coverage: on average, only about half the facilities meant to report did so.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Purvi Patel.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to National Programme on Climate Change &amp; Human Health.</p> <p><a href="https://heathealth.info/wp-content/uploads/Report-of-Heat-Related-Activities-2024_NPCCHH-compressed.pdf">The report</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-impacts-of-extreme-heat-onhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-impacts-of-extreme-heat-on<p>A review of the research on how heat harms mental health, joined to six focus groups with people who have lived with mental illness and with health workers. Of 241 studies the search found, only four, from China and the United States, met the bar for explaining how heat does its harm. The focus groups added fatigue, health anxiety, lost ways of coping and isolation. The groups were mostly in London, a limit the authors name.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Lea Baecker and Udita Iyengar and Maria Chiara Del Piccolo and Andrea Mechelli.</p> <p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266727822500029X">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-is-india-ready-for-ahttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-is-india-ready-for-a<p>The first systematic study, across several cities, of how India’s heat measures are carried out. The authors interviewed 88 officials in nine cities facing some of the sharpest rises in dangerous heat, from Ludhiana to Bengaluru. Every city reported emergency measures such as water and changed working hours. Long-term work such as shade and green cover was rare and poorly aimed, and household or workplace cooling for the most exposed was absent everywhere.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Aditya Valiathan Pillai and Tamanna Dalal and Ishan Kukreti and Alexandra Kassinis and Lucas Vargas Zeppetello and Escandita Tewari and Navroz K. Dubash.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Sustainable Futures Collaborative.</p> <p><a href="https://www.sustainablefutures.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Is-India-Ready-for-a-Warming-World-How-Heat-Resilience-Measures-Are-Being-Implemented-for-11-Percent-of-Indias-Urban-Population-in-Some-of-Its-Most-At-Risk-Cities.pdf">The report</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-lost-in-the-heat-thehttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-lost-in-the-heat-the<p>Two researchers at UC Berkeley’s India Energy and Climate Center argue that official counts suggest about 1,500 heat deaths a year. That is a tiny number beside the roughly 25,000 deaths from all causes in India each day. Carrying the ten-city study of heat and death to every district, they estimate about 3,400 extra deaths from one day of heatwave across India and about 30,000 from a five-day heatwave. If a summer brought five such heatwaves, they reckon, the toll would be at least 1.5 lakh. Their 2026 journal paper, also in this record, sets out the same estimate in full.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Ashok Gadgil and Piyush Narang.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Down To Earth.</p> <p><a href="https://www.downtoearth.org.in/climate-change/lost-in-the-heat-the-critical-miscalculation-in-indias-heatwave-mortality-data">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-good-measures-poor-implementation-nohttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-good-measures-poor-implementation-no<p>Drishti Choudhary checks Delhi’s heat action plan against what happens on the ground in four areas: buses, building sites, shelters for the homeless, and drinking water. The plan calls for shaded bus stops with water, a midday break for construction workers, cooling areas at work sites and shelters open all day in an alert. Union leaders say several of these are not carried out, and the plan lacks dedicated funding and a legal means of enforcement.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Drishti Choudhary.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Newslaundry.</p> <p><a href="https://www.newslaundry.com/2025/04/25/good-measures-poor-implementation-no-legal-teeth-can-delhis-heat-action-plan-face-the-heat">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-indias-heat-action-plans-arehttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-indias-heat-action-plans-are<p>Saumya Kalia examines whom India’s heat action plans serve. Dalit and Adivasi workers, women in construction and domestic work, and waste pickers face heat at work and at home, and their ability to cope is limited by poverty and power. A recent study found far higher heat exposure at work for marginalised castes. Activists say the plans name vulnerable groups in general terms but have not reached them.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Saumya Kalia.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to BehanBox.</p> <p><a href="https://behanbox.com/2025/05/02/indias-heat-action-plans-are-missing-caste-income-vulnerabilities/">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-rising-humidity-is-dangerous-andhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-rising-humidity-is-dangerous-and<p>Tanvi Deshpande, writing for IndiaSpend, compares a humid 33.9°C day in Mumbai, which felt like 46°C, with a dry 46.8°C in Barmer, which felt like 43.6°C. Humidity across India rose by 0.79% a decade from 1969 to 2012, and research reports that above 32°C each 10% rise in relative humidity raises the body’s strain by 22%. Yet India declares a heatwave by the thermometer alone.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Tanvi Deshpande.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Scroll.</p> <p><a href="https://scroll.in/article/1082029/rising-humidity-is-dangerous-and-its-making-indias-hot-summers-worse">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-how-extreme-heat-is-impactinghttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-how-extreme-heat-is-impacting<p>Researchers at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water built a heat risk index for 734 districts, combining four decades of temperature and humidity data with population and building density and with social and health vulnerability. Their headline is that 57 per cent of districts, home to 76 per cent of Indians, are at high or very high risk. The report’s sharper finding is about nights: across most districts, very warm nights have been rising faster than very hot days.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Shravan Prabhu and Keerthana Anthikat Suresh and Srishti Mandal and Divyanshu Sharma and Vishwas Chitale.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Council on Energy, Environment and Water.</p> <p><a href="https://www.ceew.in/sites/default/files/mapping-climate-risks-and-impacts-of-extreme-heatwave-disaster-in-indian-districts.pdf">The report</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-beyond-the-thermometer-ahmedabad-useshttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-beyond-the-thermometer-ahmedabad-uses<p>A report from Ahmedabad, where the heatwave of 2010 led the city to India’s first heat action plan, on how its low-income residents adapt now. In Odhav, women weave and sew under tin roofs that turn their homes into ovens. The Mahila Housing Trust is coating roofs with reflective white paint, and some women are insured under a scheme that pays automatically when the city’s temperature passes a threshold for two days running. More than a decade on, the reporters find, putting the plan into practice remains hard.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Dhruval Parekh and Surangya Kaur.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Down To Earth.</p> <p><a href="https://www.downtoearth.org.in/climate-change/beyond-the-thermometer-ahmedabad-uses-cool-roofs-misting-bus-stops-heat-insurance-for-climate-resilience">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-india-lancet-countdown-on-healthhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-india-lancet-countdown-on-health<p>The India page of the Lancet Countdown, which publishes yearly peer-reviewed assessments, using more than fifty indicators, of how climate change is affecting health. On heat it estimates how many heatwave days an average Indian lived through in 2024 and how many of those climate change added, and how many potential hours of work heat cost. Farming and construction carried most of the lost hours.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Lancet Countdown.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change.</p> <p><a href="https://lancetcountdown.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/India_Lancet-Countdown_2025_Data-Sheet-2.pdf">The data sheet</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-the-2025-report-of-thehttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-the-2025-report-of-the<p>The ninth report of the Lancet Countdown, which tracks with dozens of measures how climate change is affecting health around the world. Its global heat findings give context for India’s: heat deaths worldwide have risen by more than half since the 1990s, and the work lost to heat set a record in 2024. This is the authors’ accepted manuscript, which may differ from the version in The Lancet.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Marina Romanello.</p> <p><a href="https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/130009/1/FINAL_-_2025_Report_of_the_Lancet_Countdown.pdf">The report (accepted manuscript)</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-accidental-deaths-suicides-in-indiahttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2025-accidental-deaths-suicides-in-india<p>The crime records bureau’s yearly count of accidental deaths, compiled from data that states and union territories provide. It records deaths from heat or sunstroke as one cause among the forces of nature. For 2024 it recorded 1,832 such deaths, nearly a quarter of all deaths from natural causes that year.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By National Crime Records Bureau.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Accidental Deaths &amp; Suicides in India.</p> <p><a href="https://www.ncrb.gov.in/uploads/files/6ADSI-2024Chapter-1AccidentalDeaths.pdf">The chapter</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-statement-on-the-climate-ofhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-statement-on-the-climate-of<p>The weather office’s yearly account of India’s climate. It ranks 2025 the eighth-warmest year since national records began in 1901, after the record of 2024, and finds that ten of the fifteen warmest years have come in the past fifteen. It also lists the year’s deaths from extreme weather: about 35 from heatwaves, against over 1,370 from heavy rain, floods and landslides and over 1,310 from thunderstorms and lightning.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By India Meteorological Department.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Press release.</p> <p><a href="https://wmo.int/sites/default/files/2026-01/20260101_pr_4602.pdf">The statement</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-how-extreme-heat-affects-indiashttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-how-extreme-heat-affects-indias<p>Jahnavi Dhana Sri sets out why heat costs women workers more. 92% of women in paid work are in informal jobs, on farms, building sites and at home, many paid by the piece or the day, with no paid leave and no cooling. When heat forces them to cut back on paid work, the cooking, cleaning and caring that fill the rest of the day do not shrink; their income does.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Jahnavi Dhana Sri.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to ISignal.</p> <p><a href="https://www.isignal.in/earthcheckindia/how-extreme-heat-affects-indias-informal-women-workers-979259">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-intensification-and-spatial-shifts-ofhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-intensification-and-spatial-shifts-of<p>A study of where in India heatwaves strike, and how that has changed between 1981 and 2020. Average summer daytime highs rose by about a degree over the period, El Niño years pushed them higher still, and the area of the country that counts as a heatwave hotspot grew by about half. For 2011–2020 it finds the central plains, the southeastern coast, parts of western India and Gangetic West Bengal among the regions most at risk.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Shravani Banerjee and B. Padmakumari and M. V. Ramana.</p> <p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-38289-x">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-critical-perspectives-on-extreme-heathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-critical-perspectives-on-extreme-heat<p>A white paper from a workshop Harvard’s Salata and Mittal institutes held in New Delhi with India’s environment ministry in March 2025. Climate scientists, physicians, labour organisers, architects and economists each take one question: how fast India is warming, how hot is too hot, and whether cool roofs, heat action plans, heat insurance and labour law can protect people. Its value is its scepticism. Most chapters find the popular remedy weaker than its reputation, and say what would have to change for it to work.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Satchit Balsari and Kartikeya Bhatotia and Mihir Bhatt and Sharon Block and Caroline O. Buckee and Jorge Gastelumendi and Peter Huybers and Owen Gow and Tarun Khanna and Nitya Mohan Khemka and Radhika Khosla and Bhargav Krishna and Robert D. Meade and Rajesh Nayak and Aditya Valiathan Pillai and Rajan Rawal and Lucas Vargas Zeppetello.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability.</p> <p><a href="https://salatainstitute.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/April-2026-Critical-Perspectives-on-Extreme-Heat-in-India_web.pdf">The white paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-to-unlock-heatwave-disaster-fundshttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-to-unlock-heatwave-disaster-funds<p>Tanvi Deshpande explains what making heatwaves a national disaster would mean, written while the Finance Commission’s recommendation still awaited the government’s acceptance. It could unlock central money for states, allow immediate relief and help pay for heat action plans. But eligibility could hang on fragile records: a death certified as heat stroke and, in some cases, a heatwave declared by the weather office in that place on that day.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Tanvi Deshpande.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to ISignal.</p> <p><a href="https://www.isignal.in/earthcheckindia/to-unlock-heatwave-disaster-funds-india-needs-to-fix-the-fineprint-984795">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-why-cant-india-get-itshttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-why-cant-india-get-its<p>Anoushka Rajesh explains how India’s three main heat-death counts are built. The crime records bureau works from police reports and needs no clinical confirmation. The disease control centre tracks deaths reported by hospitals, and so misses many who die elsewhere. The weather office’s count is bound to the heatwave days it declares. For 2015 to 2020 the three came to roughly 8,200, 3,800 and 3,400.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Anoushka Rajesh.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to The Quint.</p> <p><a href="https://www.thequint.com/climate-change/india-heatwave-heatstroke-deaths-mortality-data">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-estimating-heatwave-induced-excess-mortalityhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-estimating-heatwave-induced-excess-mortality<p>Two researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, take the ten-city study of heat and death and stretch it to every district of India, matching each district to the study city with the most similar climate. Their answer is that one day of extreme heat brings about 3,400 extra deaths across the country, and a five-day heatwave nearly 30,000. These are modelled estimates, not counts, and the authors say plainly that they cannot be set beside official heat-death tallies.</p> <p><em>Research paper</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Piyush Narang and Ashok Gadgil.</p> <p><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-health/articles/10.3389/fenvh.2026.1789071/pdf">Read the paper</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTEntryHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-instant-delivery-companies-say-theyrehttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-instant-delivery-companies-say-theyre<p>Atul Ashok Howale signed up as a delivery rider with three quick-commerce companies in Delhi during the heatwave of May 2026. The companies described cooling vests for some riders, drinking water and coolers at rest areas, some still being installed. He found a rider eating lunch on his bike outside a store with no shade, warm water, and two orders in an hour that paid ₹44.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Atul Ashok Howale.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to The Wire.</p> <p><a href="https://thewire.in/labour/special-instant-delivery-companies-say-theyre-sheltering-workers-from-the-heat-reality-looks-different">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-indias-heatwave-is-a-warninghttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-indias-heatwave-is-a-warning<p>Kayly Ober, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, reads the 2026 heatwave as a stress test that India’s energy transition has not yet passed. Demand crossed 270 gigawatts for the first time on 21 May, coal supplied upward of three-quarters of power at peak hours, and solar output collapses after sunset just as evening cooling demand rises. She sets this beside the workers in heat-exposed sectors, and the fact that only 8 percent of households have air conditioning.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Kayly Ober.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Emissary.</p> <p><a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/emissary/2026/06/india-heatwave-electricty-climate">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-are-indias-big-cities-gettinghttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-are-indias-big-cities-getting<p>A city-by-city reading of the ERA5 reanalysis for 38 Indian cities from 1940 to 2025. Average temperatures have risen in almost all of them, but the count of very hot afternoons rises in some cities and falls in others. What climbs nearly everywhere is the heat the body cannot escape: nights that stay above 28°C, and days that feel like 40°C once humidity is counted. Chennai, it finds, now has roughly twice as many hot nights a year as in the 1940s.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Bhuvanesh.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to This Indian Life.</p> <p><a href="https://thisindianlife.today/articles/are-indias-big-cities-getting-hotter/">Read the data story</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-are-indias-heat-deaths-beinghttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-are-indias-heat-deaths-being<p>A data story that sets India’s different counts of heat deaths side by side and asks why they disagree. It finds part of the answer in the death register. India now registers nearly every death, but in 2023 the cause of only about one in five registered deaths was medically certified. A death that heat helped bring on is unlikely to be labelled a heat death if its cause is never certified.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Bhuvanesh.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to This Indian Life.</p> <p><a href="https://thisindianlife.today/articles/are-indias-heat-deaths-being-counted/">Read the data story</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-science-confirms-what-indians-experiencehttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-science-confirms-what-indians-experience<p>Mahima Jain reports on India’s warming nights. In 2025 the national minimum temperature sat further above its average than the maximum, and cities are warming at night nearly twice as fast as the country. Warm nights, humid ones above all, deny the body its nightly cooling. Night temperatures are not a primary criterion when India declares a heatwave, and most heat action plans are built around daytime highs.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Mahima Jain.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Mongabay India.</p> <p><a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2026/06/science-confirms-what-indians-experience-nights-are-now-warmer/">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-how-many-died-from-heathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-how-many-died-from-heat<p>A report from Telangana, where an eligible family can now receive ₹4 lakh for a confirmed heat death. A Telugu daily reported 51 heatstroke deaths on a single day in May 2026; the state had confirmed eight for the season. Over 2019 to 2024 the state’s revenue department recorded 38 deaths from heatwave conditions, while the crime records bureau recorded 560 deaths from heat or sunstroke, because the two use different tests.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Jahnavi and Bharathy Singaravel.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to The News Minute.</p> <p><a href="https://www.thenewsminute.com/amp/story/telangana/how-many-died-from-heat-in-telangana-the-answer-depends-on-whos-counting">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-night-shifts-help-brick-kilnhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-night-shifts-help-brick-kiln<p>Shivam Bhardwaj reports from brick kilns in Bareilly, Rampur and Amroha, where some families now mould bricks from around midnight to escape the day’s heat. One couple are paid ₹400 for every thousand bricks, and say fewer bricks mean less income. The wife says their tin-roofed shelter bakes by day, making sleep impossible. Many workers sleep three or four hours a day in peak summer.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Shivam Bhardwaj.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Mongabay India.</p> <p><a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2026/06/night-shifts-help-brick-kiln-workers-avoid-peak-heat-not-its-consequences/">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-heatwaves-push-ozone-pollution-tohttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-heatwaves-push-ozone-pollution-to<p>A short report on a study from IIT Kharagpur of twenty years of temperature and ozone data, covering 188 heatwaves. Heat speeds up the chemistry that turns exhaust and smoke into ground-level ozone, so heatwaves bring a second hazard that lingers for days after they end. The study estimates that ozone during the 2024 heatwaves was linked to about 26,500 deaths from heart and lung disease.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Nature India.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Nature India.</p> <p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d44151-026-00141-6">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-a-livable-future-protecting-jobshttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-a-livable-future-protecting-jobs<p>The World Bank’s study of what extreme heat does to work and growth in the cities of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It sets out what governments can do through the institutions and budgets they already have. It treats heat as a jobs problem: one that cuts the output of people already working and discourages the investment that would create new work. It proposes fifteen measures, from early warnings and protection for outdoor workers to building codes, cooling standards and heat insurance.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By World Bank.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to World Bank.</p> <p><a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099072226125517919/pdf/P500527-52dcf4df-7abb-43bc-9997-15db1fca9153.pdf">The report</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-too-hot-to-work-toohttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-too-hot-to-work-too<p>A survey of 538 households of informal workers in Agra, Ajmer and Delhi, most of them migrants on construction sites, brick kilns and roads, or in garment, food and stone workshops. It follows heat through their days and nights: the work, the homes that release the day’s heat through the night, the illness, the lost wages and the debts. Its central finding is that workers indoors, in enclosed and poorly ventilated workshops, are no better protected than those in the sun.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Ritu Bharadwaj and N Karthikeyan and Raashee Abhilashi and Archana Shukla Mukherjee and Vandana Khurana and Harita Yadav Saha and Rijo George.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to IIED.</p> <p><a href="https://www.iied.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/2026-07/22750iied.pdf">The report</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-declaring-heatwaves-as-a-naturalhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-declaring-heatwaves-as-a-natural<p>The Home Ministry’s answer in Parliament that heatwaves are now a notified natural calamity. Following the Sixteenth Finance Commission, heatwaves and lightning were added to the list of calamities for which the national and state disaster response funds pay relief, for 2026 to 2031. The answer also gives the health ministry’s count of heatstroke cases and confirmed deaths in 2026, as of 26 July.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Ministry of Home Affairs.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Lok Sabha.</p> <p><a href="https://sansad.in/getFile/lsapps/loksabhaquestions/annex/188/AU2541_Ql0SOe.pdf">The answer</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-how-many-indians-die-ofhttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-how-many-indians-die-of<p>Rakesh Dubbudu, writing from the team at the data journalism site Factly, explains why at least four central agencies keep separate tallies of heat deaths and why they disagree. The National Crime Records Bureau counts what police records say, the disaster authority counts deaths tied to a declared heatwave, the weather office counts by heatwave days, and the health ministry tracks suspected heat stroke flagged by district hospitals. Between 2000 and 2020 the crime bureau counted over 20,600 heatstroke deaths, the disaster authority about 17,700 and the weather office about 10,500.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Rakesh Dubbudu.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to India Together.</p> <p><a href="https://indiatogether.org/heat-deaths-count/">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeathttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-for-indias-hijra-women-risinghttps://lifeinindia.org/long-view/5-india-heat-deaths-heatwaves/#e-2026-for-indias-hijra-women-rising<p>Dialogue Earth spoke to 26 Hijra women, a community of transgender and intersex people, in Delhi, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Chennai. Shut out of most jobs, many depend on blessing drivers at traffic signals, one of the community’s most visible sources of income, standing for hours in the sun in heavy saris. One woman whose earnings at the signal fell with the heat now does sex work at night, which spares her the day’s heat but is unpredictable and often violent. Another says the heat has grown harder to bear since she began hormone therapy.</p> <p><em>Reporting</em> · added 01.10.2026</p> <p>By Anuj Behal.</p> <p>Excerpt quoted for review under section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The report belongs to Dialogue Earth.</p> <p><a href="https://dialogue.earth/en/climate/for-indias-hijra-women-rising-heat-comes-with-dangerous-trade-offs/">Read the article</a></p>Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTReportingHeat