MUMBAI: India is sweltering, and the government is no longer treating it as routine. With temperatures tearing past 46°C across central and northern India, the Union ministry of health and family welfare has written to the chief secretaries of every state and union territory, ordering them to ready their medical infrastructure for the worst. The letter, dispatched as the mercury climbed to a seasonal extreme, makes clear that this is not a short, sharp heat event but the opening salvo of a punishing three-month ordeal.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned that heatwave conditions are likely to persist from April through June 2026, with greater-than-normal frequency across Eastern, Central and North-Western India, the South-Eastern Peninsula and coastal stretches of Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh. Isolated pockets of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka are also at risk. Delhi, already reeling, could see maximum temperatures hit 44°C, accompanied by strong winds.
The immediate picture is already alarming. Akola in Vidarbha recorded the country’s highest maximum of 46.9°C on 26th April; by afternoon on the 27th, Wardha and Amravati had matched each other at 46.2°C. Most of the country is running at 40–46°C, with only the western Himalayas, north-east Bihar and the north-east escaping the worst. Several pockets of Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are running more than 5°C above seasonal norms. Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi are sitting 3.1–5°C above normal, as are Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Gujarat.
Heat wave conditions are presently prevailing across parts of Vidarbha and isolated pockets of Himachal Pradesh, East Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Warm nights, a separate but compounding hazard, have gripped pockets of East Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, denying the body its natural overnight recovery.
The seven-day outlook offers little comfort in the near term. On 27th April, heat wave alerts cover an alarming roll-call of states: Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu-Kashmir-Ladakh, Madhya Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Rayalaseema, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Vidarbha and West Madhya Pradesh. On 28th April the list narrows to Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Odisha, Rayalaseema, Telangana, Vidarbha and West Rajasthan before heat wave alerts disappear from day three onwards, though hot and humid conditions are forecast to grind on over Odisha until 1st May. Hot and humid weather will also affect Konkan, Kerala, coastal Gujarat and Tamil Nadu through 29th April.
The health ministry’s directives to states are specific and urgent. Every health centre must have a functioning specialised heatstroke treatment unit up and running. Ambulance services must be fully deployed and ready for immediate callout. Early warning alerts must reach the public in time to allow action. And critically, all heatstroke cases must be reported in real time on the ministry’s Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) portal, a clear signal that New Delhi wants to track the human toll as it accumulates, not after the fact. The ministry had already issued an advisory to states in March; the latest letter signals that those earlier warnings were not sufficiently heeded.
For those caught outdoors, the IMD’s guidance is unambiguous: wear loose, light-coloured cotton, cover the head, drink water well before thirst sets in, and lean on homemade hydration such as lassi, buttermilk, lemon water and rice water. Those in orange-alert zones face a real risk of heat illness, particularly infants, the elderly and anyone with a chronic condition.
Some relief is in the post. North-west India should see temperatures fall by 3–5°C between 28th April and 1st May. Central India gets a modest 2–3°C drop from 29th April, before creeping back up by 2–3°C in the first days of May. Maharashtra holds steady through 29th April, then eases by 2–3°C into early May.
That is cold comfort for the tens of millions already enduring the heat right now. When a government that typically manages public health crises quietly starts writing urgent letters to every chief secretary in the country, the message is hard to misread: brace yourselves, this summer means business.