Heat sears poor neighbourhoods as Karnataka's response falls short

Bengaluru: Kotresh’s initial reticence soon gave way to anguish as he spoke about living without water supply for over three months at a Greater Bengaluru Authority-run shelter next to Kempegowda Metro Station in the heart of the state capital.

. “I am not a beggar,” he said. “I work as a daily wage labourer and save every penny in the hope of setting up a tea stall. But I spend Rs 50 a day just to use the bathroom and toilet at a nearby private facility. There are elderly and vulnerable people here who cannot afford even that. What will they do? People are hesitant to drink water because there is no water to even flush the toilets at night.”

. He gestured towards the shelter, which houses around 35 homeless people on an average each day.

. About a kilometre away, in the Bhangi Colony slum, where six to 10 people often live in cramped 150-250 sq ft houses without windows, 50-year-old Nirmala sat outside her house. The narrow strip of shade cast by an asbestos sheet jutting out from the roof offered little relief, but the moving air and open surroundings were still preferable to the oven-like heat trapped indoors.

. The colony, comprising around 350 houses, is home to more than 1,200 residents, most of whom rely on public toilets.

. “I pay Rs 5 every time I use the toilet and end up spending more than Rs 400 a month,” Nirmala said. “We think twice before drinking the water. Its quality is poor. This summer, the heat has been particularly harsh, and I am worried about my grandson who is less than a year old,” she said, as she gently rocked the child on her lap.

. Extreme heat is not new to Karnataka. Discussions on the issue go back decades and the first assessment under the Karnataka State Action Plan on Climate Change in 2013 acknowledged the threat posed by heatwaves, noting that “projected increases in temperature may increase the frequency of heatwave and thermal stress, leading to heat cramps, dehydration, influenza, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases”.

. In 2019, the state government notified heatwave as a natural disaster and announced compensation of Rs 4 lakh for the kin of victims.

. However, official definitions of a heatwave have long failed to account for the vulnerabilities of people with limited or no access to resources that could help them adapt to the impacts of climate change.

. For instance, many residents of Bengaluru experienced unusually high temperatures this April, with the mercury hovering between 35°C and 38°C. While these conditions did not technically meet the official criteria for a heatwave, relying rigidly on such definitions to shape local policy has overlooked the lived realities of lakhs of people.

. In the slums, however, conditions felt nothing short of a heatwave for the poor. One need not look beyond the heart of Bengaluru, which is home to a significant share of the more than 40 lakh slum residents recorded across the state in the 2011 Census. Many of these residents are migrants from villages who moved to the city in search of livelihoods.

. Multiple studies have shown that houses with asbestos and corrugated tin roofs record daytime temperatures about 6°C higher and night-time temperatures 2°C to 3°C higher, than the ambient temperatures reported by the India Meteorological Department.

. The impact can be devastating for the elderly, children and women engaged in caregiving, who are often exposed to conditions resembling “wet-bulb” temperatures — a combination of high heat and trapped humidity caused by poor ventilation inside the houses. The dense clustering of houses in slums, which contributes to the urban heat island effect, along with radiant heat from thin roofs and the lack of green cover, further worsens conditions.

. The climate action cell of the Greater Bengaluru Authority has launched a pilot project to study the impact of insulated roofing, which is estimated to reduce indoor temperatures by around 2°C. Officials have also proposed additional mitigation measures, though most remain at the planning or pilot stage.

. C S Patil, a senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department, said that climatologically, the 38.2°C maximum temperature recorded in the city on April 28 was one of the higher points in recent years, after the 39.2°C recorded in 2016.

. He added that temperatures in Bengaluru could rise to around 39°C in May, but the onset of pre-monsoon rains is expected to bring relief and help cool the city.

. Inequality

. Such relief, however, has often remained out of reach for people living in heat-affected districts of Karnataka, as well as the lakhs of residents crowded into slums and low-income settlements in Bengaluru and other cities.

. The Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) issued heatwave alerts for 10 to 15 districts last month, largely covering parts of northern and coastal Karnataka.

. The poor, whose contribution to climate change is negligible, are among the worst affected. Kausalya, a leader of the Slum Mahila Sanghatane, said that most residents in Bengaluru's Bhangi Colony and Jolly Mohalla, where she works on improving household conditions, belong to marginalised castes.

. “Most residents here belong to marginalised communities and work as pourakarmikas, waste processors and in other occupations where people from privileged groups are largely absent,” she added.

. This reality is especially stark in the arid north of the state. Shettiappa Maralubyhatti, who migrated from Bagalkot to Hubballi three decades ago in search of work, now lives in the Hosur slum.

. “While the monsoon brings one kind of challenge, with rainwater gushing into our homes, it is becoming hard to survive the summers inside the house,” Maralubyhatti said, pointing to his 8 ft by 12 ft dwelling where an asbestos roof makes it impossible to even support a fan.

. Shettiappa’s neighbour, Vaishali Bidarkatti, said she faced several problems. The open drain in front of her house has become a mosquito breeding ground, posing a constant health risk to her family.

. “Besides, while the men go out for work, we have to bake in this asbestos-sheet-roofed house,” she added.

. Like slum settlements, even houses built under government housing programmes for the poor continue to find it difficult to access reliable electricity.

. Yellamma Colony, located about 3.5 km off the main road in west Bengaluru’s Tavarekere, comprises over 300 houses built for the Hakki Pikki community and other disadvantaged groups under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

. However, the settlement still lacks electricity supply, even two years after families moved in. The residents, who secured these houses after a decade-long struggle led by the Savitribai Phule Women's Collective, say they are exhausted by the continued lack of basic services.

. Almost all the Hakki-Pikki women make plastic crafts, flowers and decorative materials, which are sold by their husbands. "I work in this heat to make these materials. If I am lucky, my husband will sell it and get Rs 200 home in the evening. There is no power and no water connection here. Sometimes we draw electricity from the main line. We have been requesting the authorities to complete the toilet work, but no one listens to us,” said Manjula Vighnesh.

. Residents here use the wooded area behind the colony as an open toilet. The sighting of a leopard has sent fear making women avoid coming out in the night.

. The heat's impact on livelihood has become evident in the poor neighbourhood of Kalaburagi, where temperatures reportedly touched a record 46°C last month. Residents of the Tarfile Colony say the night-time re-radiation of heat has turned into a nightmare. They complained that extreme heat leads to lack of sleep due to which they face fatigue and even dizziness. They cannot concentrate on work at the workplace and home.

. “I have been engaged in construction work along with my husband. Increasing cost of living has prompted both of us to work. We have to spend sleepless nights if there is a power cut. Hard work during daytime and lack of sleep at night will cause psychological stress. We cannot afford air-coolers and extreme heat causes various health problems including fatigue, dehydration among children and elderly people in our house”, Reshma Matangekar, a resident, said.

. Heatstroke

. Is heat causing death? “Not this year,” said a District Health Officer, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We review the case history and the condition of the deceased. We assess whether heat was an underlying factor by looking for signs of dehydration or indications that the death was caused by heatstroke.”

. A data sheet from The Lancet released last year noted that compared to 1990–1999, people in 2024 were exposed, on average, to 366 additional hours of ambient heat, posing a risk of heat stress during moderate outdoor physical activity. “This was a record high,” it said.

. The Lancet report estimated 92,608 deaths attributed to heat across India and 10 other countries in the South-East Asia region.

. It also warned that temperatures have continued to rise in the past two years, according to the State of the Global Climate report released by the World Meteorological Organization.

. According to the health department data, the state recorded seven cases of heatstroke between March 1 and April 26. However, the Bengaluru Rural District Health Officer said three cases recorded in Nelamangala were wrongly classified as heatstroke and were actually cases of dehydration.

. Dr Indumathi V, Medical Superintendent at Ballari Medical College and Research Centre, said most cases reported at the institute involve dehydration, diarrhoea and weakness. “As per the state government’s orders, we have reserved a separate ward for heatstroke patients. However, no admissions have been reported so far. We are currently treating patients with heat exhaustion using IV fluids and ORS,” she said.

. A senior doctor at Victoria Hospital said it is often difficult to determine the underlying cause of cardiac arrests in taluk and district hospitals. “In most cases, there is hardly any awareness among people. At the same time, doctors here do not have the necessary resources,” he said.

. The lack of clarity around such deaths has made it difficult to assess the full impact of heatwaves. In two separate incidents last month, two labourers working under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme collapsed and died in two villages of Sindhanur taluk.

. The District Health Officer of Raichur and the Sindhanur taluk health officer did not respond to calls and messages seeking comment.

. Systemic reorientation

. A community health practitioner who recently completed her MD and worked in low-income neighbourhoods as part of outreach programmes said that the specifics of heatwaves are yet to fully percolate within much of the medical community.

. “Over the last three years, I have experienced and seen that the level of discomfort during summer is completely different,” she said. “However, even now, when a patient comes in complaining of fatigue, my initial response is to look for the usual causes. Though guidelines are issued, they are generic in nature. Our systems have not trained us adequately to identify and diagnose heat exhaustion and heatstroke.”

. M S Divakara, Director of the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), acknowledged existing gaps in implementation.

. He said the heatwave action plan is an umbrella framework that assigns different responsibilities to various departments as part of mitigation and preventive measures. “We have prepared the plan by taking inputs from stakeholder departments because, ultimately, they are the implementing agencies,” he said.

. He added that departments and district administrations receive more granular, actionable inputs during weather watch committee meetings.

. Ritvik Ranjanam Pandey, Principal Secretary of the Health and Family Welfare Department, said the shift is expected to come. “The heat action plan has been prepared and circulated. This requires coordination across departments to address the problem. We will look into this matter,” he said.

. Bengaluru shelter homes face facility gaps

. The shelter homes in Bengaluru were developed under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM).

. The 48 shelters in the city were set up as a measure to support the urban poor and vulnerable populations. However, many of the users are daily wage workers who try to save a portion of their limited earnings and send it back to families in distant villages.

. The erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had invited tenders and awarded the management of shelter homes to NGOs. However, over the past two years, residents and users say that essential facilities have not been adequately provided.

. Of the two shelters visited by DH, one did not even have a fan, despite accommodating over 25 people resting after a day’s work in extreme heat.

. Sources in Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) said the programme was earlier funded with 60% contribution from the Centre and the rest from the state. “Two years ago, the Centre suddenly stopped the programme. There was a push for states to take over operations and management,” a source said.

. M Maheshwar Rao, Chief Commissioner of the Greater Bengaluru Authority, said the matter would be looked into. “If the NGOs are responsible, we will take action,” he said.

. (With inputs from Pavan Kumar H in Hubballi, Raju Gavali in Belagavi, Shilpa P in Mysuru and Vittal Shastri in Kalaburagi)

Heat sears poor neighbourhoods as Karnataka's response falls short

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