The Tamil Nadu government has declared heat waves a state-specific disaster, allowing it to provide immediate relief to those who suffered health problems due to severe heat in April and May, The Hindu reported on Tuesday.
The government can use the State Disaster Response Fund for this purpose. It was previously unable to do this because heat waves are not considered natural calamities in the list of disasters notified by the Centre.
The Tamil Nadu government also announced that the families of individuals who died of heat-related causes will be given ex-gratia payments of Rs 4 lakh each, The New Indian Express reported.
The state government’s order noted that in April and May, the cities of Chennai, Madurai and Thoothukudi witnessed extremely high temperatures due to the urban heat island effect.
The phenomenon refers to the relative warmth of a city as compared to its surrounding rural areas due to the presence of heat-absorbing concrete, vehicular emissions and air conditioners.
This summer, the districts in Tamil Nadu with the highest number of days when the maximum daytime temperature exceeded 40 degrees were Erode (31 days), Karur (26 days), Tirupattur (21 days), Dharmapuri (20 days) and Vellore (23 days).
Centre’s stand on heat waves
In July, Union Minister of State for Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh told Parliament that heatwaves were not considered a natural calamity under the notified list of disasters eligible for financial assistance as the 15th Finance Commission did not find merit in expanding the scope of the current list.
However, he said that a state could use up to 10% of the annual funds allocated to its respective State Disaster Response Fund to provide relief to victims of natural calamities that it considers “disasters” within its local contexts.
Such disasters do not have to be included in the centrally notified list of natural disasters, the minister added.
From April to June, around 40% of the country experienced double the number of heatwave days than usual.
On July 1, the India Meteorological Department said that the country recorded 181 heatwave days in June, the highest after 177 days registered in 2010.
The India Meteorological Department defines a heat wave day as one when the maximum temperature at a weather station touches at least 40 degrees Celsius or more in the plains, and 30 degrees Celsius or more in the hills.
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