Heat waves in are becoming more frequent, intense, and geographically widespread. Examine the gaps in India’s heat governance.

As several reports have pointed out that the summers of 2024, 2025 and 2026 marks a climate tipping point especially for India. Despite over 250 Heat Action Plans (HAPs), India's heat governance remains reactive and fragmented.

Gaps in governance:

• Fragmented institutional framework: Heat is still not a notified national disaster, restricting SDRF access. Further, The responsibility is split across health, urban, transport, and disaster-management agencies with no single accountable authority.
• Reactive approach: Plans overwhelmingly fund short-term relief — drinking water, ORS, cooling centres — while long-term measures like urban greening, cool roofs, and open spaces remain few and poorly targeted.
• Inadequate protection of vulnerable groups like Informal workers, farmers, construction labourers and the urban poor.
• Weak local capacity and data integration: Many districts lack cityspecific heat risk mapping, early warning dissemination and convergence between IMD forecasts, health surveillance and local administration.

Therefore, India needs enforceable, community-centred HAPs backed by dedicated funding, unified institutional coordination, and long-term cooling strategies.