The State is staring at severe heatwave conditions in the next two months as the temperature is expected to rise considerably over 47º Celsius in some districts, especially Khammam, Nizamabad, Bhadrachalam, Nalgonda, Karimnagar and Warangal.
Telangana, according to a report filed by the Telangana State Development and Planning Society, is highly prone to hot weather conditions and heatwave. The data on ‘vulnerability’ analysis prepared by the Society indicated that three out of the 589 mandals are in severe conditions, 62 in critical and 187 in semi-critical conditions.
The report said Adilabad, Nirmal, Jagtial, Kumram Bheem, Asifabad, Mancherial, Peddapalli, Karimnagar, Warangal, Mulugu, Khammam, Suryapet, Mahabubabad and Nalgonda districts are highly vulnerable to the heat.
According to Telangana State Heatwave Action Plan 2021 prepared by the Revenue (Disaster Management) department and TSDPS in association with UNICEF Hyderabad chapter, non-availability of irrigation facilities, erratic distribution of rainfall, limitations of ground water exploration are compounding the situation and making some parts of the State drought prone.
Changes in the monsoon pattern too, are adding to the cause of proneness to droughts in the State. The agricultural drought vulnerability index indicated that 87 mandals are less vulnerable, 90 mandals are moderately vulnerable, 91 mandals are vulnerable, 98 mandals are highly vulnerable and 76 mandals are very highly vulnerable. Mandals with high and very high vulnerability are mostly in Nalgonda and Mahabubnagar districts followed by RangaReddy, Medak and Karimnagar districts.
The action plan, accordingly, aims at providing guidelines to be taken up by the State and district administration for minimising the impact of possible heatwaves. The primary objective is to ensure no fatalities during the heatwave and reduce related illnesses.
It may be recalled that the State witnessed 541 heatwave related deaths in 2015, but the timely steps initiated by the government brought down the number to just nine in 2020. Instructions have been given to different line departments at the State and district level outlining the responsibilities of each department as well as the need for ensuring effective coordination between them for minimising the impact of the heatwave conditions.
The government had already launched a mobile app (TS-Weather) for keeping the departments, expert agencies and stakeholders on the alert during the summer months.
In addition to putting together reports from the automated weather stations spread across the State, the app is providing information about the top 10 hottest locations in the State, enabling district officials to issue weather bulletins locally to take necessary precautions.
This is in addition to measures to ensure accurate and timely weather forecast and hazard warning to State line departments and public. Weather data is being collected from 1,044 automated weather stations located across the State on an hourly basis. It creates and archives database of weather information and makes real-time analysis, and three-day weather forecast of heatwave on real time basis.