New Delhi, A recent study has estimated that a single day of extreme heat causes about 3,400 excess deaths across India, while a five-day heatwave causes nearly 30,000. Researchers Piyush Narang and Ashok Gadgil from the India Energy and Climate Center at the University of California Berkeley, US, adapted findings from a multi-city analysis of heat-related mortality across 10 cities in India to estimate excess deaths across all districts in the country.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Health, integrated district-level mortality rates from the Civil Registration System and population projections for 2024 to obtain district-level excess death estimates under one-day and five-day heatwave scenarios.
The results have direct and urgent implications for how India designs and funds its heat resilience architecture, the researchers said. The top 100 districts, comprising nearly one-third of India's population, accounted for 44 per cent of excess deaths projected for a five-day heatwave event.
