India, Jan. 16 -- India recognised cold waves as disaster in 2012. But the country still does not have an effective action plan to mitigate its impact

"The cold is literally biting us, but we have no place to go," said Soni, shivering despite sitting around a bonfire under the Sarai Kale Khan flyover in Delhi on New Year's Eve. Her family of eight along with millions of other homeless people in north and northwest India were left freezing in the cold this December as the region experienced one of the longest and most brutal cold waves in living memory (see box 'What caused the unusual freeze').

More than 30 people are reported to have died in Uttar Pradesh due to the extreme event that broke several records. On December 28, Nagaland rec...