Room 136, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Central Campus
India is experiencing more frequent and intense heatwaves, resulting in rising deaths and heatstroke cases. With nearly 380 million people, about 75% of the workforce, dependent on heat-exposed labour, these extreme conditions pose a growing threat to public health, particularly among vulnerable urban populations. This reality underscores the urgent need to build resilience through coordinated action across health systems, governance, and communities, guided by strong evidence and actionable policies.
This seminar will draw on the expertise of Abhiyant Tiwari, who has worked extensively at the intersection of heat stress and health with diverse stakeholders, to help us understand how India can enhance its preparedness for extreme weather events in an era of escalating climate risks.
Abhiyant Tiwari is the Lead – Health & Climate Resilience at NRDC India. He holds a Master of Public Health with a specialisation in Environmental Health Sciences from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
He has worked extensively with academia, governments, and non-profits on advancing climate and health resilience. He contributed to South Asia’s first Heat Action Plan in Ahmedabad (2013) and has since helped scale heat-health adaptation efforts across India and the region. He led a national study for the National Disaster Management Authority on heatwave thresholds for over 100 Indian cities. Abhiyant has also played a pivotal role in developing the pioneering Ahmedabad AIR Plan for air pollution risk communication. Abhiyant designed and implemented a mobile app-based solution for real-time surveillance of cases across multiple districts in Gujarat. He is a member of NDMA’s technical expert group on heatwave guidelines and NCDC’s Technical Expert Group on Heat-Related Illnesses. He also serves on the Management Committee of Global Heat Health Information Network: a WHO-WMO Joint Initiative, the Regional Technical Working Group for Safe and Disaster Resilient Hospitals in PEER - South Asia, the Indian Meteorological Society, and is a fellow of LEAD India and Climate Reality.
