Consequently, nearly seventy-six percent of Delhi experienced severe, persistent heat for six or more years between 2015 and 2024.

Urban centers in Delhi are trapping heat around the clock, leaving core city areas nearly four degrees Celsius warmer than outer zones at night. A comprehensive report by the Centre for Science and Environment reveals that the national capital has lost nine percent of its natural capacity to cool down after sunset.

This night cooling deficit stems from a massive ecological decline over the past decade. The city saw its total green cover plummet from twenty-five point thirty-six percent in 2014 to just fourteen point fourteen percent by 2024, leaving concrete infrastructure exposed to soaring temperatures.

Consequently, nearly seventy-six percent of Delhi experienced severe, persistent heat for six or more years between 2015 and 2024. The data shows that almost ninety-eight point seventy-two percent of the capital area breached the extreme heat threshold at least once during this ten-year window.

The crisis directly impacts public infrastructure, placing eighty percent of surveyed schools and eighty-four percent of major commercial markets within high-risk zones. Unauthorized colonies housing over thirteen lakh people also sit in these chronically overheated pockets, while industrial areas like Mundka have become permanent heat hotspots.

The human cost of this changing climate remains high. While official figures counted twenty-five heat-related fatalities in 2024, independent investigations tracked over fifty-five deaths, highlighting the urgent need for heat-resilient urban planning.