A team of researchers from IIT Kharagpur has found that most cities in the country are turning into "urban heat islands" in all seasons during day and night, officials said.
In their study, researchers from Centre for Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Sciences (CORAL) of IIT-KGP and its Architecture and Regional Planning department showed that most big cities in the country with population more than one million have recorded rise in mercury level during daytime while showing an increasing trend in the night hours.
The study, 'Anthropogenic forcing exacerbating the urban heat islands in India', noted that the relatively warmer temperatures in urban areas, compared to suburbs, have potential health hazards due to heat waves apart from pollution, an IIT-KGP statement said on Friday.
"Our research is a detailed and careful analysis of urban heat islands of India, which is the difference between urban and surrounding rural land surface temperatures, across all seasons in 44 major cities from 2001 to 2017," Professor Arun Chakraborty, one of the researchers, said.
He further said, "For the first time, we have found evidence of mean daytime temperature of Surface Urban Heat Island (UHI Intensity) going up to 2C for most cities, as analysed from satellite temperature measurements in monsoon and post-monsoon periods."