The Centre on Wednesday said that heatwaves are not considered a natural calamity under the notified list of disasters eligible for financial assistance as the 15th Finance Commission did not find merit to expand the scope of the current list.

This comes in the background of the India Meteorological Department stating earlier this month that the country had witnessed 536 heatwave days this summer, which was the highest in 14 years.

India recorded 40,000 suspected cases of heatstroke and over 100 heat-related deaths during one of its hottest and longest heatwaves this year.

On Wednesday, Jitendra Singh, Union minister of state for ministry earth sciences, while responding to a question by Congress MP Sukhdeo Bhagat in the Lok Sabha, said that the current list included 12 disasters eligible for National Disaster Response Fund and State Disaster Response Fund assistance.

These are cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, fires, floods, tsunamis, hailstorms, landslides, avalanches, cloud bursts, pest attacks, and frost and cold wave.

“The issue of inclusion of more calamities in the existing notified list of calamities was considered by the 15th Finance Commission,” Singh said in his reply.

However, the commission had observed that the current list covered the needs of the states to a “large extent” and “thus did not find much merit in the request to expand its scope”, he said.

The 15th Finance Commission was set up in 2017 to make recommendations on taxation and funds to be granted to states, among other subjects. Its recommendations cover a six-year period up to March 31, 2026.

The finance commission, in its report published in October 2020, dealt with the topic of natural calamities as it includes questions about funding from the National Disaster and Risk Management Fund and State Disaster and Risk Management Funds.

On Wednesday, Jitendra Singh also noted 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.

Singh also said that the India Meteorological Department had taken multiple steps to improve monitoring and early warning systems to help “minimise loss of life and property during extreme weather events, including heatwaves”.

He added that this included issuing seasonal and monthly outlooks, followed by an extended range forecast of temperature and heatwave conditions; and a hot weather hazard analysis over India that includes daily temperature, winds, and humidity condition, among other steps.

In response to another question by Janasena Party MP Vallabhaneni Balashowry, Singh claimed that heatwave deaths in the country have reduced in the past nine years “due to seamless weather prediction of temperature, and early warning alters for the heatwave conditions by IMD, and the implementation of the heat action plan by the National Disaster Management Authority”.

Citing a National Crime Records Bureau report, the Union minister said that the highest number of deaths (1,908) due to heatwaves in India occurred in 2015.

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.

It added that the mean temperature for June in northwest India was 31.73 degrees Celsius. This was 1.65 degrees Celsius above normal and the highest since 1901.

From April to June, around 40% of the country experienced double the number of heatwave days than usual.

Since May 13, Delhi recorded 40 consecutive days of temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius.

The India Meteorological Department considers declaring a heatwave in the plains if the maximum temperature crosses 40 degrees Celsius, or is at least 4.5 degrees above normal. In the hilly regions, the agency considers declaring a heatwave if the maximum temperature crosses 30 degrees Celsius, or is at least 4.5 degrees above normal.

A heatwave is declared if these criteria are met in at least two stations in a meteorological sub-division for at least two consecutive days.