Concrete fever: Why India needs heat management beyond air-conditioning

Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan touched 48 degrees Celsius in the last week of May 2026, the highest temperature recorded in India so far this year. With the monsoon delayed, severe pre-monsoon heat is not unusual, but the harm is far worse for informal sector workers who must labour outdoors with little protection.

The link between climate change and heatwaves is well documented. India Meteorological Department (IMD) data show that the frequency of heatwave spells over India's Core Heatwave Zone — which covers the central, northwestern and eastern coastal regions, or roughly 30 per cent of India's land area — has risen by 0.1 days per decade since 1961. The maximum length of a heatwave has grown by 0.55 days per decade.

Globally, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has flagged the 2015-25 stretch as the warmest 11-year period since modern records began. Greenhouse gas emissions are the long-term driver, but for Indian cities the story is more complicated.

Indian urban areas are now running 2 to 10 degrees Celsius hotter than the surrounding rural countryside. This urban heat island effect is created by concrete and asphalt that store heat through the day, the cutting of tree cover, and the waste heat thrown out by millions of air-conditioners cooling offices and homes. Delhi's average humidity has risen by 8 percentage points between 2015-19 and 2020-24, partly because of a more sealed urban surface.

This is where a technology-first reflex becomes risky. Buying more, better and cheaper air-conditioners can shield middle-class offices and apartments, but it does little for outdoor workers, street vendors and construction labourers. Worse, ACs add to the urban heat island and to electricity demand, which still leans on coal-based generation. In thermodynamic terms, the machines amplify the very problem they appear to solve.

A serious response needs slower, less glamorous policy work. Urban design has to mandate reflective roofs and pavements, expand green cover and protect water bodies. Building codes need to be re-calibrated for a climate that has already shifted. State Heat Action Plans, which the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has pushed since 2013-14, must move from paper to enforcement.

Most urgently, India already has labour laws that require employers to stop outdoor work when the heat index crosses dangerous levels — these are routinely flouted. There is also no clear budget head for heat management at the Centre or in most states. Without dedicated finance, heat resilience stays a slogan.

For exam aspirants, the heat debate sits at the intersection of climate change, urbanisation, public health, labour rights and disaster management. It is a classic GS-III environment and disaster management theme that links directly to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on cities (SDG 11), health (SDG 3) and climate action (SDG 13).