Declare National Emergency Over Heatwave, Rajasthan High Court Urges Centre

The Rajasthan High Court has urged the Centre to declare a national emergency over the ongoing heatwave, saying that hundreds of people had died during weeks of extreme weather. India is enduring a crushing heatwave with temperatures in several cities sizzling well above 45 degrees Celsius.

The court in Rajasthan, which has suffered through some of the hottest weather in recent days, said authorities had failed to take appropriate steps to protect the public from the heat.

"Due to extreme weather conditions in the form of (the) heatwave, hundreds of people have lost their lives this month,"  it said Thursday.

"We do not have a planet B which we can move onto... If we do not take strict action now, we will lose the chance of seeing our future generations flourish forever."

The court directed the state government to set up compensation funds for relatives of any person who dies as a result of heat ailments.

Ruling on the current heatwave and such events in the future, it also said India should begin declaring them "national calamities".

This would allow the mobilisation of emergency relief in a similar manner to floods, cyclones and natural disasters.

India is no stranger to searing summer temperatures but years of scientific research have found climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.

As temperatures in New Delhi shot up this week, power usage in the city of an estimated 30 million people surged to a record high on Wednesday.

Researchers say human-induced climate change has driven the devastating heat impact in India and should be taken as a warning.