Record-breaking temperature seem to be a norm worldwide. Bengaluru recorded its hottest day in the month of March in the past four years on March 31. At 37.2ºC it was just 0.1 degrees less than the hottest day the city has seen in March so far, which was 37.3ºC on March 29, 1996.
Lakshay from Fridays For Future says that the frequency of these record-breaking numbers show that climate change or rather the climate crisis is underway and it’s not a distant concept.
G S Srinivasa Reddy, former director and current consultant at the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, says that the temperature that the state is hitting is well within the ‘normal’ temperature but that normal has risen over the years. Normal temperature is defined by the IMD. “If you compare last year’s temperature to this year, the change is not observable. But over the past century, there’s been a variation of .5 to .7 degrees. It is a minuscule number, but any temp increase, even if it’s a .1 degree increase is harmful,” he says.
Lakshay says that over time record-breaking numbers has become a non-issue. “This constant reiteration of the “hottest” is seen as a regular occurrence which means people don’t pay much attention to it and try to resolve it,” he says. Rajani Santosh, environmental activist, says disruption of natural ecosystems, like tree cover and lakes, is a primary cause for these rising temperature. “Apart from the measured temperature at a city level, there’s also a measurement for what the temperature feels like. The latter is not popular in India but it helps understand and track microclimatic conditions that lead to these issues,” she says.
One major contributing factor is the concretisation of spaces. Known as the heat island effect, more concrete structures in public and private spaces lead to higher temperatures. This is because the material absorbs and emits heat. “Even the smallest things like replacing trees and shrubs at a median with concrete structures make a difference,” she says.
She adds that because not a lot of studies have been done at the local level, there is a lack of verifiable data but residents have seen observable changes. “If you move from an area with a lot of tree cover to more concrete structures, you can feel the rise in temperature,” she says.
Local microclimate can have a ripple effect on the city and thus it is the government’s responsibility to come up with a plan to combat it.
While BBMP has indicated their commitment to the Paris Agreement, Rajani thinks it’s just an arbitrary checklist. “There has been no policy change. For that matter there has been no real information available at the town, ward and municipal level on how to combat any of these issues,” she says.
So is it possible to bring down these record-breaking numbers?
Both Rajani and Lakshay reference Heat Action Plans(HAP) from Gujarat as great examples of local-level climate action having positive results. “In May 2010, there was a heat stroke in Ahmedabad that caused an excess of 1,344 deaths. It led the municipal department into creating a HAP,” says Lakshay.
They consulted scholars, activists and other stakeholders to create a plan that had solid scientific backing. “Most importantly, it focused on homeless people, slum dwellers and labourers, essentially those who cannot avoid being in the sun,” he says.
It included a cool-roofs programme and simple measures, such as shifting maternity wards from the top floor to the ground floor, which greatly brought down infant morbidity.
“The National Disaster Management Authority had given orders to every city to create and follow one, but they either don’t have one or don’t implement the one that has been created,” says Lakshay.
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