Heat Island Effect? The Disappearing Winters of Ranchi

“In Ranchi, it used to rain with hailstorms during Magh (January–February). In our time, we wouldn’t even hear the word ‘heat’ in Phagun (February–March), Chaitra (March–April), Vaishakh (April–May), or Jyeshtha (May–June). And now, it starts getting hot in Magh itself,” complains Ranchi resident Sheela Devi about the changing weather pattern of the city.

Over 70 years, Devi has seen the capital Ranchi, transform from something people compared to Shimla into what now feels like an urban heat wave zone. Her immediate worry is the sharp rise in temperatures over the past few days.

This February 2026, Ranchi’s temperature has already touched close to 30°C. According to the Meteorological Department, this time the heat in Ranchi will be higher compared to previous years. Between 10 and 19 February, the maximum temperature ranged from 26°C to 29.5°C, while the average maximum during this period was recorded at around 28°C.

Around 20 years ago, Ranchi’s February maximum temperature would remain between 26–27°C and the minimum between 10–13°C. Now, even the night temperatures have risen significantly. February mornings and nights used to be cold, sometimes dropping to 10°C or even lower. The sun during the day felt mildly warm, but the temperature rarely crossed 27°C.

Sheela Devi says that when people from outside the city used to visit Ranchi, they would say the weather here felt like Shimla. But now, she says, uncontrolled vehicle emissions and rampant deforestation have destroyed not just Ranchi’s weather, but impacted the entire Chotanagpur region.

McCluskieganj, which falls in Ranchi district, is often called “Mini London.” Even here, the intense cold has begun to decline. Though like every year, this time too the temperature dipped below zero for a few days. Says Subhangi Singh, a resident, voices her concern, “McCluskieganj has also started becoming very hot. For the past few days, it has been quite warm during the day. In February 2016, a movie was being shot here. It was so cold that all the actors who had come for the shoot were shivering.” Over the past ten years, McCluskieganj’s climate has changed considerably, and the opening of numerous illegal brick kilns has added to the heat, adds Singh.

The plateau region of Latehar and Gumla, along with Ranchi, once compared to hill stations, is slowly turning into a heat wave zone. In 2022, temperatures in several districts of Jharkhand touched 46°C, the highest ever recorded. That year, for the first time in 23 years, Ranchi did not receive a single day of rainfall in April. It was also the year when February turned out to be the hottest in decades. February 2026 is reminding many residents of 2022.

Earlier, Ranchi’s maximum temperature would usually reach 38–40°C, but in recent years it has started touching 42–43°C. In Latehar and Gumla’s plateau areas, where the maximum temperature once stayed around 30°C, it is now reaching 38°C.

According to Abhishek Anand, Director of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Ranchi, this year will see higher temperatures and uneven rainfall distribution, though not as extreme as 2022.

He says, “Last year was unusually cold weather-wise. It cannot be taken as a comparison, as it was an exception. It was a La Niña year, so that had an impact. Before that, too, there wasn’t El Niño. It was a neutral phase, and La Niña was weak, then it became strong. But now La Niña is weakening, and there are expectations that El Niño may develop. Obviously, if it becomes an El Niño year, the heat will increase, and monsoon rainfall distribution will also get disturbed. But even then, I don’t think we will see a historic heat like 2022.”

Impact On Farmers

According to the department, if rainfall decreases, the possibility of drought in the state increases, especially because agriculture here depends almost entirely on rainwater.

Over the past 25 years, Jharkhand has been affected by climate change almost every alternate year. In this period, the state has faced drought more than ten times. Repeated droughts, according to the Meteorological Department, are linked to climate change caused by mining, deforestation and disturbance of local ecological balance.

For farmers, climate change is a double blow. The state’s plateau geography has already meant limited irrigation facilities. Being largely plateau terrain, Jharkhand has very few irrigation sources. According to the Agriculture Department, only about 20 per cent of agricultural land has irrigation access. The rest depends entirely on rainfall. That is why farmers are mostly limited to cultivating paddy even during the Kharif season.

An important point is that because of all this, the monsoon pattern in Jharkhand is gradually shifting. Farmers have felt this shift over the last two decades. According to the Meteorological Department, from 1961 to 2010, the monsoon would usually arrive between June and June 10. Between 1971 and 2020, this shifted to 10–15 June. Even the normal rainfall levels have changed. From 1951 to 2000, normal rainfall was 1091.9 mm. Between 1961 and 2010, it reduced to 1054.7 mm. From 1971 to 2020, it further declined to 1022.9 mm.

Is Mining To Blame?

The Met  Department considers large-scale mining activity a major reason behind the rapid environmental change in Jharkhand. Between 2008 and 2022–23, India approved the diversion of 305,000 hectares of forest land for 17,301 projects. Nearly one-fifth of this, 58,282 hectares, was lost due to mining alone, including 15,691 hectares from Jharkhand. A media report citing CAG data also claims that in Jharkhand, trees were cut across 350 square kilometres due to illegal mining.

Professor and environmentalist Nitish Priyadarshi of Ranchi University expresses deep concern over the city’s deteriorating environment. According to him, by 2050, Ranchi’s temperature could rise by 1.5 to 2.5 degrees. The number of hot days will increase, and nights will become warmer. The earlier maximum of 36–40°C may rise to 41–43°C. This has already begun, as the temperature has crossed 40°C multiple times in recent years.

However, Priyadarshi says that occasionally Ranchi and other districts of Jharkhand still experience pleasant weather because climate patterns are globally guided and fluctuate accordingly. For example, last year, western disturbances brought good rainfall to Jharkhand.

But February remaining this warm in Ranchi is a dangerous signal. He says, “It used to rain in February, and the cold would last till March. Now the cold doesn’t feel the same. After Jharkhand became a separate state, the load on Ranchi increased. The population grew unplanned. Forests were cut recklessly. Green cover began disappearing. Pollution increased, greenhouse gas effects intensified, and Ranchi started falling under the urban heat island effect. The Ranchi that was once famous as a hill station for its climate has now entered the urban heat island zone.”

Water Bodies Depleted

Due to weakening local monsoon systems, rainfall in Ranchi is also declining. Experts say that earlier, the reason for good rainfall and relatively cool summers 25–30 years ago was the presence of numerous ponds and wells, which no longer exist. Ranchi’s water cycle depended heavily on evaporation from ponds, rivers and reservoirs. That evaporation helped form rainfall. Now, when ponds, wells and rivers are disappearing, how will evaporation happen?

If forests keep disappearing, ponds, wells and lakes keep drying up, and mining continues in the same manner, without balance, the shift will only deepen. However, the question is no longer whether the climate has changed, as people can already feel it. The real question is whether anything will be done before the Ranchi that once felt like a hill station exists only in memory.