As summer sets in, a familiar spectre returns to the Indian subcontinent: the brutal, unrelenting heat. Only this time, the science says it will be worse ~ and more lethal. Climate models are no longer predictive suggestions but urgent warnings. Yet our national response remains disturbingly tepid. The truth is undeniable. India is heating faster than the global average, and its poorest are on the frontline of a crisis they did not cause. Heatwaves, once an occasional extreme, are becoming seasonal norms. This year, large swathes of the country are likely to see record-breaking temperatures. The cost, both human and economic, will be devastating.

And yet, this looming catastrophe receives neither the political attention nor policy urgency it demands. Where are the emergency protocols for outdoor workers, who risk their lives under tin roofs or on open roads during peak hours? Where is the investment in heat-resilient urban infrastructure ~ green corridors, cool roofing, shaded public spaces? Why are heat-wave warnings still treated as meteorological footnotes rather than public health alerts? The problem is not just that heat kills ~ it is that it kills unequally. The wealthy retreat to air-conditioned homes and offices, while the working class toils through blistering afternoons with little more than a scarf for protection. The elderly, the homeless, construction labourers, vendors ~ these are the faceless victims of our climate inertia. More troubling still is the absence of serious conversation at the political level. Climate resilience is rarely a campaign issue.

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In election rallies, there is thunder, but rarely about the one shaking our ecosystems. If climate change is the defining challenge of this century, then our collective silence is the defining failure of our politics. There is also an institutional vacuum. Climate action in India is largely reactive, handled in fragmented silos across ministries and states. A national heat action plan exists ~ but it needs teeth, funding, decentralisation, and real-time accountability. We cannot afford to treat heat-waves as annual aberrations. They are structural features of a warming planet, demanding structural responses. Public health must become central to climate policy. Heatstroke clinics, mobile hydration units, and community awareness campaigns are not luxuries ~ they are necessities.

Just as we plan for floods and cyclones, we must institutionalise preparedness for extreme heat as a recurring emergency, not an episodic inconvenience. But it is not all despair. Cities like Ahmedabad and Nagpur have pioneered early warning systems and heat-mitigation strategies. These must now become templates, not exceptions. School schedules, labour hours, healthcare provisioning ~ all need to be rethought through the lens of rising heat stress. India is running out of time and temperature thresholds. The question is no longer if the next heat-wave will come ~ it is how many lives we will lose to our failure to prepare. A nation that prides itself on resilience must prove it not through slogans, but through action. The heat is on us ~ in every sense.