By April each year, the heat begins to rise from India’s roads long before noon. Concrete rooftops trap warmth deep into the evening, glass buildings intensify glare, and shrinking water sources disappear beneath weeks of relentless sun. Across hot cities like Delhi, Agra and Vadodara, rescue hotlines are constantly ringing with cases of wildlife facing harsh summer’s consequences.
Unfortunately, some incidents concerning urban wildlife that were once isolated seem to now reveal a much larger climate reality. A dehydrated black kite collapses inside an embassy compound. A peacock is found exhausted on a residential rooftop. Monitor lizards take refuge near fuel stations and pipelines. Rat snakes crawl into bathrooms, garages and motor rooms searching for shade, moisture and prey.
Across Wildlife SOS operations, summer rescue data from recent years paints an alarming picture of how intensifying heatwaves and expanding urban infrastructure are altering the survival patterns of birds and reptiles in India.
Last year between April and June alone, Wildlife SOS addressed 843 bird and reptile rescues across its operational regions. In 2022, during one of India’s harshest recorded heatwave years, the summer numbers had reached up to 965 rescues. Even more concerning is the shift in timing. Historically, May and June were considered the most dangerous summer months for wildlife. Today, rescue teams are increasingly witnessing severe heat distress as early as April.
In April 2026 alone, Wildlife SOS recorded 224 bird rescues. And this was just within the opening weeks of summer.
The trend reflects a larger environmental shift unfolding across India’s expanding cities, where rising temperatures, prolonged heatwaves and the urban heat island effect are severely impacting the coexisting wildlife.
The Silent Victims of Urban Heatwaves
Birds are among the first animals to visibly suffer during extreme summer conditions.
Unlike mammals, birds lose water rapidly through respiration and struggle to regulate body temperature once ambient heat crosses its threshold. Asphalt roads, metal structures and concrete buildings continue radiating heat long after sunset, leaving birds with very few cooler refuges during peak summer months.
To cope with harsh temperatures humans can simply hit the AC switch and relax. However, Air conditioners and cars etc, also contribute to the heat. Every car on the road and AC duct in a building radiates heat into its environment and when that happens on a scale as big as Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru that impact is compounded on the wildlife.
Trees on the other hand, not only help bring temperatures down, but they also provide cooler refuge to birds, sadly in order to support human population, cities are expanding and rapidly cutting them down.
Across Delhi NCR, Agra and Vadodara, Wildlife SOS rescue teams have repeatedly responded to black kites, pigeons, parakeets, peafowl, owls and mynas that collapsed in public spaces, unable to fly due to dehydration and heat exhaustion.
Among the startling summer calls of dehydrated birds back in May 2023, rescue teams also responded to one coming in from the Prime Minister’s Office. Two black kites had crash-landed into the Prime Minister’s Office, and the rescue team found them to be severely dehydrated. Another black kite found in a similar situation was rescued from the Swedish Embassy in New Delhi. Such cases have become increasingly common across residential societies, railway stations, institutional campuses and commercial complexes, where birds are in desperate need of shade and water.
For many avian species, the crisis begins directly inside their nesting spaces.
Birds have resorted to nesting on exposed rooftops, iron beams, construction sites and concrete ledges, and these are all exposed to dangerously high surface temperatures. Chicks and nesting adults often face prolonged heat exposure, especially in heavily urbanised neighbourhoods where tree cover continues to shrink
The rescue data reveals another concerning pattern: summer-linked bird rescues are beginning earlier with every passing year.
In 2022, a year when India had the hottest March in 122 years, Wildlife SOS recorded 284 bird rescues in April itself. Similar early-season spikes continued across 2024, 2025 and 2026, suggesting that rising baseline temperatures are targeting urban wildlife as well.
Why Snakes Are Increasingly Entering Human Spaces
While birds show sudden distress during early heatwaves, reptile rescue patterns rise steadily as summer progresses.
Unlike birds, reptiles can initially escape extreme temperatures by retreating underground or into shaded crevices. Summer weeks are when the surface of the ground itself retains high levels of heat, and to seek cool respite, snakes wander into unusual spaces, causing rescue calls to escalate sharply.
Across Delhi NCR, Agra, Vadodara and Jammu & Kashmir, Wildlife SOS teams find themselves rescuing snakes from within bathrooms, pipelines, vehicles, construction sites, warehouses, gardens and residences during peak summer months.
The rescue data for reptiles shows a clear sequential rise in their rescues as well.
In 2023, reptile rescues by Wildlife SOS rose from 108 in April to 127 in May before surging to 216 in June. Similar patterns appeared again through 2024-25 when a total of 155 reptiles were rescued in April and 273 in June. Although the total number of yearly rescues remained lower than 2023, the number of monthly rescues climbed steadily through the hottest period.
Species commonly rescued during summer include rat snakes, cobras, wolf snakes, sand boas, pythons, kraits, keelbacks and monitor lizards. Many of these animals are not actively “invading” cities. They are seeking survival refuges because they are losing their habitats rapidly. It is because of their natural instinct that reptiles are frequently rescued from dark spaces or cracks that mimic their natural home within urban locales.
Cool bathrooms, damp pipelines, shaded parking areas and water storage spaces often provide lower temperatures than the surrounding urban environment. At the same time, cities also offer easy access to prey species such as rodents, which further attracts snakes into human settlements.
The rescue team in Jammu & Kashmir has observed another important behavioural pattern during summer operations. Snake rescue calls sharply increased on sunny days but almost disappeared during rainfall. As ectothermic animals dependent on external heat sources to regulate body temperature, reptiles become highly active during hot dry conditions, often emerging into human spaces while basking or searching for cooler shelter.
Unfortunately, these encounters frequently trigger panic.
Snakes entering homes, offices or vehicles are often injured or killed out of fear before rescue teams can intervene. In many cases, the animals themselves are already severely stressed from dehydration, overheating or entrapment inside urban infrastructure.
The ‘Urban Heat Island’ Effect Is Intensifying Wildlife Distress
The consistently high rescue numbers emerging from densely urbanised regions such as Delhi NCR and Agra point toward a growing environmental challenge known as the urban heat island (UHI) effect.
Cities absorb and retain significantly more heat than surrounding natural landscapes due to concrete, asphalt, reduced vegetation and dense infrastructure. UHI effect is when surface temperatures in urban spaces can become dramatically higher than nearby rural areas, especially during prolonged heatwaves.
For wildlife, this transforms cities into thermal traps.
Birds searching for water or shade often encounter overheated rooftops, reflective buildings and wide roads with few safe resting spaces. Every small patch of greenery and water become critical survival zones for birds, reptiles and small mammals that have adapted to the urban terrain.
The rising number of summer rescues suggests that wildlife is not merely straying into cities accidentally. Habitat fragmentation is blurring natural environments with urban spaces that are forcing many to find emergency refuges.
This shift reflects a larger climate reality unfolding across India. Heatwaves are becoming more frequent, more intense and longer lasting. Seasonal timelines are changing. March temperatures are rising earlier, while prolonged summers now extend wildlife stress periods well beyond traditional peak months.
Small Actions Can Help Wildlife Survive Extreme Summers
As urban heatwaves intensify, every small intervention by city residents can make a significant difference for wildlife struggling to survive extreme temperatures.
For birds, placing shallow bowls of clean water on balconies, terraces, gardens and community spaces can help prevent critical dehydration during peak summer afternoons. Native trees and shaded green spaces provide important cooling refuges for urban wildlife.
Residents are also encouraged to remain calm during unexpected snake sightings and immediately contact trained rescue organisations instead of attempting to handle the serpent or cause any harm to it. Often, snakes are also seen simply crossing an area to seek its refuge, in which case, there is no need to be afraid or intervene.
Many reptiles entering homes during summer are non-venomous, for which simple awareness of local snakes found in the region becomes important.
At Wildlife SOS, rescue teams continue responding daily to animals affected by India’s growing climate extremes.The rising rescue numbers are warning signs of a degrading ecological balance and consistent destruction of natural habitats will only worsen the situation. As India’s cities continue expanding and summers grow harsher each year, coexistence will increasingly depend on whether urban spaces can still offer wildlife the basic conditions necessary for survival: water, shade, safe shelter and room to breathe amid the concrete.
If you reside in an area where Wildlife SOS has 24X7 active rescue units, you can reach out to them for assistance at:
Delhi NCR: +91 9871963535
Agra: +91 9917109666
Vadodara: +91 9825011117
Jammu and Kashmir: +91 7006692300, +91 9419778280
