Centre notifies heatwaves, lightning as national disasters

Heatwaves and lightning have been officially recognised as natural calamities eligible for relief under the State and National Disaster Response Funds, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai told Parliament on August 4. The decision follows recommendations from the 16th Finance Commission, which cited increasing extreme weather due to climate change. Rai also reported 4,853 heatstroke cases since March 1, 2026, with Telangana recording the highest (915), followed by West Bengal (733), Chhattisgarh (660), and Andhra Pradesh (540), only 20 deaths were recorded, 11 of them in Maharashtra.

The Hindu notes that while some states like Tamil Nadu had already notified heatwaves as state disasters, the national notification is a significant step. Experts quoted by The Hindu stress that heatwave preparedness must be a year-round effort. Anup Kumar Srivastava, former senior consultant at NDMA, said capacity building should be continuous. Mihir R. Bhatt of the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute added that compensation must be studied across states. Both sources highlight that classifying heatwave deaths remains challenging due to varying definitions and co-morbidities.

The SDRF and NDRF funds can now be used for response and relief, while long-term preparedness will be funded from mitigation funds. Lightning, already the largest cause of disaster deaths in India, has seen rising fatalities since 1975, according to NCRB data. Other notified disasters include cyclone, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanches, cloudburst, pest attack, and frost.