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Bengaluru's significant temperature rise will impact mental health: Nimhans study

An increase of approximately two-degrees Celsius in the past 175 years seems to have occurred already
Last Updated 20 April 2021, 00:07 IST

Detecting a two-degrees Celsius rise in Bengaluru’s mean temperature since the 1830s, twice as much as the industrial world, a recent study has warned that this will have a significant impact on the mental health of Bengalureans.

Published in the latest issue of the international journal, Science Direct, the study by National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (Nimhans) researchers notes that Bengaluru’s severely stressed environment with rising heat and shrinking green space may have particularly emphatic consequences on mental health.

Access to green areas, the study observes, “has a profound pro-mental health consequence and may even be an effective public health intervention to promote health and well-being, reducing the risk for depression in diverse settings and may even influence the risk for more severe psychiatric illness like schizophrenia.”

Elaborating on the ‘significant increase’ detected in Bengaluru’s ambient temperature, the study has this to say: “The average monthly lowest and highest in the 1830s of 68.2℉ (20.12°C) and 78.8℉ (26°C) has increased to 71.6℉ (22°C) and 82.4℉ (28°C) (2010). A statistically significant difference in temperature is detected across all months.”

An increase of approximately two-degrees Celsius in the past 175 years seems to have occurred already.

“The increase was modest, albeit detectable by the end of the 19th century, and it has accelerated over the last half century. This increase is almost twice as much as changes in the ‘industrial’ world, where an increase of one-degree Celsius has been detected from pre-industrial times.”

Compared to pre-industrial levels, the world had already warmed by 0.87 °C in 2015. Urgent action was called for restricting this from reaching 1.5°C by 2040. “Unfortunately, in locations like Bangalore, the increase in temperature seems to have crossed two-degrees Celsius already,” the study points out.

Based on a micro-level analysis of the city’s environmentally disastrous urbanisation by T V Ramachandra of the Indian Institute of Science and others, the Nimhans study says that opportunities for ‘nature experience’ have shown a precipitous decline in many urban environments.

This, the study says, “could influence both risk and recovery from mental illness, and have an effect on mental health in general.”

It also cites a recent epidemiological study that detected a correlation between suicidal ideation and living in an urban area in India. “These consequences may already be apparent.”

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(Published 19 April 2021, 19:12 IST)

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