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Heat Action Plans (HAPs), first introduced in 2013, are India's primary policy response to hotter temperatures that pose threats to public health, food security and outdoor workers.
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India's densest and poorest areas are often excluded from cooling efforts tree-planting or water-body restoration because of land ownership and infrastructure challenges, said Pillai.
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The plans were often created top-down with little community input, and heat is still viewed as mainly a health issue "when it actually intersects with labour rights, housing and urban planning," she said.
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A study by Yale University in the United States in 2023 found 71% of nearly 11,000 Indians surveyed had experienced severe heatwaves in the previous year and 56% were "very worried" about heat as the climate changes.
Most of the respondents supported national action, like shifting to clean energy, rather than measures at the local level.
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