Hyderabad: Hyderabad has been identified among 30 cities worldwide facing extreme heat risk, with researchers pointing to rapid urban expansion, shrinking green cover and the growing dependence on air conditioners as key drivers of the crisis.
The finding emerges from a University of Oxford study, “Moving Beyond Exposure: A Globally Comparable Framework for Heat Risk Assessment in Cities,” which assessed 205 cities globally.
Among Indian cities, Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Madurai carry a higher risk, while larger metropolises such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Delhi fare relatively better.
Heat-risk score
The urban area of Hyderabad, home to roughly 77 lakh people, recorded an overall heat-risk score of 0.68 on the study’s Heat Vulnerability Index, a composite measure that assesses the danger an extreme heat event poses to a given population.
The score is only marginally better, by around 0.05 to 0.10 points, than those of top at-risk cities such as Cairo, Manila and Ho Chi Minh City, and significantly worse than cities like Bangkok and Hanoi.
The index captures not just temperature exposure, but also a population’s access to cooling infrastructure and green cover, both of which remain limited for large sections of Hyderabad’s residents, raising the risk of heat-driven illness.
A decade-high heat count
The data on the ground underscores the urgency. Between April 1 and June 5 this year, the city recorded at least 47 days with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius, the highest such count in 10 years.
The toll is already visible. Households are battling soaring electricity bills and worsening water shortages, with each successive heatwave stretching both civic infrastructure and household budgets to their limits.
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