Beyond Delhi, Are India's Smaller Cities Prepared to Handle Rising Heat?

Temperatures in many parts of India have already surged past normal levels, pointing to a hotter-than-usual summer.

Barely halfway through February, temperatures in several parts of India have surged past normal levels.

(Photo: Vibhushita Singh/The Quint)

Barely halfway through February, temperatures in several parts of India have surged past normal levels.

• On 13 February, Prayagraj recorded a maximum temperature of 30°C.

• Delhi recorded 31.6°C on 16 February, the earliest in five years that February temperatures crossed 30°C.

• In Telangana, maximum temperatures have risen to between 34°C and 37°C—several degrees above the seasonal average.

An analysis of data from 36 major urban centres, including capital cities, by Down To Earth found that 27 of them recorded above-normal maximum temperatures in the first 15 days of February.

Another study published earlier this month, too, revealed that several tier-2 Indian cities could experience an additional warming of up to 0.7-0.8°C, compared to their surrounding rural areas, under a 2°C global warming scenario.

With all early signs and forecasts pointing to a hotter-than-usual summer, the pressing question is whether Indian cities are equipped to handle the rising heat.

Which Cities Are Vulnerable and Why?

The recent study, published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analysed future temperature trends in 104 medium-sized cities—with populations between 300,000 and one million—across tropical regions in Asia, South America, West Asia, the US, and Africa.

It found that in 81 percent of these cities, daytime land surface temperatures are projected to rise faster than in surrounding rural areas. In 16 percent of them, mostly in India and China, the additional warming could be 50-112 percent more than nearby rural regions under a 2°C global warming scenario, a threshold that is likely to be reached in the second half of this century.

There is already evidence that cities are warming faster than surrounding rural areas. This is due to a phenomenon known as the 'urban heat island' effect, in which built-up environments, characterised by concrete, construction and high-rise buildings, retain and radiate more heat than outlying areas.

What stands out about this study, however, is its focus on India’s tier-2 and tier-3 cities. The Indian cities identified in the study include Jalandhar, Bikaner, Bathinda, Patiala, Hisar, Rohtak, Mathura, Erode, Bijapur, Parbhani, Nanded-Waghala, Akola, Muzaffarnagar, Khammam, Shahjahanpur, Satna, and Gaya.

Manoj Joshi of the Climatic Research Unit at University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and one of the study's authors, tells The Quint that these cities are particularly vulnerable to rising heat because many are located in humid, monsoon-influenced regions.

“Monsoonal rainfall provides moisture that evaporates and cools the land surface, thereby limiting warming,” he explains. “In cities, this cooling effect is reduced,” mostly because of lack of green spaces contributing to urban heat islands.

The study, too, pointed out that the heat will be intensified because of regional changes in climate and vegetation cover, leading to increased heat-related health risks for urban populations. He further added that difference in city size, which the study did not examine, could also have an additional effect.

Speaking to The Quint, Divyanshi Vyas, an urban and environmental planner and researcher at the Indian Institute of Human Settlement in Bengaluru, who is not associated with the study, calls the findings "concerning," adding that it "aligns with what we are observing on the ground."

"This 'amplified warming' perfectly mirrors what we see with our work in cities like Kalaburagi. Heat is not just a meteorological data point; it is deeply spatial and socio-economic. While a satellite sees surface temperature, residents living under asbestos or tin sheets experience indoor temperatures that remain dangerously high even at night."

Divyanshi Vyas

Do These Cities Have Plans to Combat the Heat?

The good news is that, as heatwaves have intensified in recent years, governments have begun to take heat mitigation and preparedness more seriously. Several of the cities mentioned in the study, including Jalandar, Patiala and Bikaner, already have heat action plans in place or are in the process of developing them.

The bad news is that there is still a significant gap between what's been drafted on paper and its effective implementation on the ground, particularly the long-term measures.

Speaking to The Quint, Abhiyant Tiwari, Health & Climate Resilience Lead at NRDC India, who was a part of the team that developed the heat action plans for Varanasi and Churu released in the summer of 2025, said many measures outlined in the plans have already been implemented, while others are in progress.

“In Varanasi, several measures have already been rolled out—from capacity building to greening crowded areas. Spots were identified where there was little to no shade, and commuters were exposed to direct sunlight for long periods. There is a strong commitment from authorities and stakeholders to see these measures through. We expect a lot more action this year, including low-cost cooling solutions, cool roofs, and cooling stations for outdoor workers. For Churu, the plans have been drawn up and will be implemented.”

"There were two new pilots that were done in several low-income housing schemes with the Varanasi Development Authority. Similar measures will also be taken in Churu as well," he adds.

Tamanna Dalal, Senior Research Associate at the Sustainable Futures Collaborative (SFC), is less optimistic about the plans being put to action.

"Even though new heat action plans are coming up, nothing in a sense has changed. While a lot of visible short-term actions are taking place that will gain political traction, long-term measures are lacking."

Tamanna Dalal

This gap was underscored in a 2025 study by the SFC, which interviewed 88 city, district, and state officials responsible for implementing heat action measures. The researchers found that while short-term responses—such as improving access to drinking water and expanding hospital capacity—have seen progress, long-term measures, including infrastructure upgrades and urban planning reforms, remain inadequate across cities.

Gaps Between Policy and Practice

Heatwaves, despite their growing intensity, are still not included in the list of disasters eligible for national or state disaster response funds. Only a handful of states have notified them as “state-specific disasters”.

Heat action plans are also not legally mandated. What this means is that every action plan is merely a guideline, and not a requirement. In such a context, questions of accountability arise.

“How do you actually make a bureaucrat take a heat-relevant action?” asks Dalal.

That structural gap plays out differently across cities.

“This is also where differences between tier-1 and tier-2 or tier-3 cities emerge. Larger cities tend to have stronger political incentives for bureaucrats to act. In Delhi, for instance, the heat action plan has received significant visibility, along with sustained pressure from political leaders, officials, and the media to implement it,” Dalal tells The Quint.

By contrast, smaller cities often grapple with administrative bifurcations. Tiwari explains,

“Larger cities usually have all the departments, budgets, etc in their control. But, in smaller cities, there is a rural-urban distinction when it comes to the administration... and there are often grey areas of who controls what. There you have to get more stakeholders on board, get buy-in from both the city administration and the broader authority at the district level.”

Even where plans exist, implementation can be fragmented, say experts. “Heat action plans are often superimposed on already burdened municipal departments where there is no nodal officer for heat. On top of that, the solutions outlined are often quite broad."

Dalal alleges, "Plans might call for increasing green cover or undertaking plantation drives, but they rarely specify what kind of trees should be planted and where. At the local level, this quickly becomes a question of land availability and the politics of plantation, which species are chosen, and why. Those details are largely absent in the action plans themselves."

Monitoring is another weak link, particularly outside metros.

“Most smaller cities lack weather station networks, especially in informal settlements, where heat stress is the highest. Monitoring often relies on top-down data from the IMD [India Meteorological Department] rather than localised temperature thresholds.”

Why Smaller Cities Can Still Get It Right

Experts say the focus needs to move from major urban centres to tier-2 and tier-3 cities. “Any rapidly growing city is in need of a heat action plan or at least integrating the concept of climate risks into their development and local area plans," they add.

Tiwari explains that unlike the already developed metro cities, the smaller cities are at an advantage. “Tier-2 and tier-3 cities are the growth engines,” he says. "A majority of India’s population will be living in urban areas, and these cities are yet to build much of the infrastructure needed for that incoming population."

In comparison, he explains, there are limited ways to fix the problem in bigger cities "because they have already developed so rampantly".

“Although efforts are being made, it is difficult to introduce corrective measures in bigger cities at this stage. Smaller cities, however, can learn from the past mistakes and expand in a heat-resilient way.”

Abhiyant Tiwari