India's heat action plans fail in vulnerability assessments

HAPS are primary policy response to economically damaging and life threatening heat waves.

A review of 37 heat action plans in India shows most of them do not explicitly carry out vulnerability assessments, leaving the authorities with little data on where to direct their scarce resources.

Heat action plans (HAPs) are the primary policy response to economically damaging and life threatening heat waves. They prescribe a number of activities, disaster responses and post-heatwave response measures to reduce the impact of heat waves.

Though the exact number of HAPs in India is unknown, some estimates claim the existence of well over 100 HAPS nationwide.

The Centre For Policy Research (CPR), which conducted the "first critical review" of heat action plans at the city (nine), district (13) and state (15) levels across 18 states, said it was unclear to what extent actions prescribed in the HAPs were being implemented.

"India has made considerable progress by creating several dozen heat action plans in the last decade. But our assessment reveals several gaps that must be filled in future plans.