Extreme heat in Ahmedabad: plans, cycles and who is at work

Where South Asia’s first heat action plan began, and where its results were measured. Heat plan: heat plan in force.

Heat type: Dry heat before the monsoon, then humid heat during it. Dry heat and humid heat, explained.

Heat action plan: Heat plan in force

Ahmedabad launched South Asia’s first heat action plan in 2013, after a 2010 heatwave caused an estimated 1,344 excess deaths. An estimated 1,190 deaths a year were later avoided.

Sources: Hess et al., Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2018

Heat today

Live readings and the week’s forecast are on the interactive map. Official warnings: India Meteorological Department. How much climate change shaped today’s heat: Climate Shift Index map, Climate Central.

Vicious cycles the evidence ties to Ahmedabad

The overwhelmed-clinic loop

The plan prepared hospitals and warned the public before heat peaked. Source: Hess et al., Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2018

Heat illness floods clinics. Overwhelmed clinics treat people later, and more cases become severe. Follow it on the map.

The poverty–heat trap

Up to three-quarters of India’s workforce depends on heat-exposed work. Source: World Bank, 2022, reported by Down To Earth

People who can’t afford to stop working fall ill. Illness costs income, and lost income makes stopping even less affordable. Follow it on the map.

The invisible-deaths loop

As in most countries, heat deaths are hard to count, which makes the case for prevention harder to see.

Heat deaths go uncounted, so heat protection goes unfunded, so more people die uncounted. Follow it on the map.

Who heat hits hardest here

• Workers in heat-exposed jobs
• People in informal settlements

Heat action plans on file

3 documents for Ahmedabad in the India heat action plan archive, with a link to each PDF.

A worked plan to learn from

Ahmedabad’s heat action plan (Ahmedabad, India, 2013 onwards)

Already at work here

• Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, with IIPH Gandhinagar and NRDC: Launched South Asia’s first heat action plan in 2013: early warnings, public outreach and training for medical staff.
• All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI): An Ahmedabad-based institute that helps Indian states, districts and cities turn heat warnings into local action. It supports local heat action planning, surveyed 121 street vendors, auto drivers and construction and domestic workers in Lucknow on how heat hits their work, offers Afat Vimo disaster microinsurance to low-income families, and runs a regular southasiadisasters.net series on extreme heat.
• IBISA: Launched a parametric heat-index product in Ahmedabad in 2024 that pays women workers when heat cuts their working hours, and Ushma Kavach, which protects dairy farmers against heat-stress losses.
• C40 Cities: Its Cool Cities Accelerator brings together cities including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Singapore on early warnings, building standards and tree cover.
• Heat Resilience Action (HERA), formerly Climate Resilience for All: Works on extreme heat with a focus on women and low-income communities. With SEWA and Swiss Re, it combined insurance payouts and cash for lost income after India’s 2024 heatwaves.

Listing does not imply partnership, affiliation or endorsement.

The national picture

Plans and law, warnings, rules for heat at work, cooling, money and other cities in India: the India country snapshot.