Gurgaon: A person living in Gurgaon’s Dwarka Expressway corridor experiences surface temperatures up to 8 degrees Celsius (°C) higher than someone in Sushant Lok or South City. A thermometer reading of 39°C in Sector 43 can register as 44°C on the ground in Sector 84 — a difference of 5°C.These differences are neither anomalies nor are they entirely down to the geography of a spot. Instead, they are driven by a decade of unchecked concretisation, vanishing green cover, and the spread of heat-absorbing roads and glass buildings.A 12-year ward-wise analysis of satellite-derived land surface temperature (LST) data, covering the summer months of March through June between 2015 and 2026, maps this divide in granular detail. Conducted by climate think-tank Envirocatalysts, the study analysed imagery from Landsat 8 and 9 satellites at 30-metre resolution — each data point represents a 30m x 30m patch of ground — allowing a precise neighbourhood-level assessment of surface heat across the city’s municipal wards.The findings show that where a resident lives in the city can significantly influence their heat exposure, with neighbourhood-level differences often exceeding the impact of year-to-year weather variation. Crucially, the same hotspots have persisted across the entire study period, pointing to structural rather than seasonal causes.The most extreme heat is concentrated along the Dwarka Expressway growth corridor, Old Gurgaon, the industrial belts around Khandsa and Udyog Vihar, and parts of the DLF-Sushant Lok area. Every ward in Gurgaon has become warmer since 2015, but the pace has been sharply uneven. The widest temperature gap was recorded in 2019, when surface temperatures in Ward 24, covering Sihi and sectors 83, 84 and 88, along the Dwarka Expressway, were nearly 8°C higher than in Ward 33.Ward 24 also recorded the highest average summer LST in 2026 at 44.1°C. It also holds the highest single reading in the entire dataset — 56.73°C in May 2019, during what the data identifies as Gurgaon’s most intense heat year on record. The ward crossed 53°C on multiple occasions in 2018 and 2019, years when several parts of the city regularly breached the 50°C mark during peak summer months.Ward 8, which includes Basai Village, Dhanwapur, Ram Vihar, Surat Nagar Phase 2, and sectors 100-104, and 37D, recorded the second-highest average summer LST in 2026 and also the sharpest warming trend of any ward over the decade — rising by 3.6°C between 2015 and 2026.Wards 22 and 23, covering areas such as Sushant Lok (Blocks A and B), DLF Phases 4 and 5, Sectors 27, 42 and 43, along with Khandsa Village, Saraswati Enclave, and Sector 10A, consistently appeared among the city’s hottest wards. Ward 19, covering the railway corridor around Sectors 14, 15 and 31, was another recurring hotspot.At the other end of the scale, wards 32 and 33, which include Sector 7, Sector 7 Extension, Shivpuri, New Colony, Krishna Colony, Jyoti Park, Housing Board Colony, Laxman Vihar Phases I and II, Sector 4 and Cancon Enclave, consistently ranked among the coolest parts of the city, despite being densely built-up urban neighbourhoods.Ward 2, covering DLF Cyber Hub, DLF Phase 2, Udyog Vihar, Sarhaul and Dundahera, also remained comparatively cool throughout the study period.In 2026, ward 33 recorded an average summer LST of 39.1°C against Ward 24’s 44.1°C — a gap of more than 5°C within the same city. In several earlier years, that difference widened further, approaching 8°C during peak summer months.Ward 8 recorded the steepest rise at 3.6°C over the decade. Ward 24 followed at 2.71°C. Wards 3 and 4, covering Carterpuri, Palam Vihar Extension and sectors 21 to 23A, warmed by 2.5°C and 2.3°C, respectively. Ward 19 rose by 2.31°C.The pattern shows that both older, densely populated neighbourhoods in Old Gurgaon and rapidly developing corridors on the city’s edge are accumulating heat at an accelerating pace.Ward 25 in Badshahpur, covering sectors 65 to 70, recorded the smallest increase at just 0.52°C. Ward 30, which includes Greenwood City, Malibu Town, Mayfield Garden and Sushant Lok Phases 2 and 3, rose by 0.63°C. Both wards retain relatively more green cover and open space than the city’s hotspots.Unlike ambient air temperature recorded at weather stations, LST measures the heat emitted directly by surfaces — roads, rooftops, paved areas and open land. It is a standard tool for mapping urban heat islands and identifying where heat stress is most acute at the ground level.Sunil Dahiya, founder and lead analyst at Envirocatalysts, said the divide reflects changes in the physical fabric of these neighbourhoods over time. “The heat stress and LST are governed by the meteorological conditions and geographic features. The cutting down of green trees, disappearance of water bodies, and their replacement by concrete roads and glass buildings have led to LST increasing much more steeply in these localities than in others,” he said. Dahiya called for immediate ward-level action, including heat-resilient infrastructure and the protection of existing green cover.“People who can’t afford expensive cooling solutions” are most exposed to the consequences, he said, and interventions need to be targeted at the neighbourhoods where the heat burden is highest.A month-wise analysis shows how rapidly heat builds across Gurgaon. Average surface temperatures across wards typically ranged between 31°C and 35°C in March before rising sharply in April. Temperatures peaked in May, when the city’s hottest wards frequently crossed 45°C and, in extreme years, breached 50°C.
