Arunachal’s birds: canary in the coalmine
, , and • West Kameng, Arunachal Pradesh

Arunachal’s birds: canary in the coalmine

Birds in this biodiversity hotspot are shifting their ranges upslope, signalling serious ecological damage in the eastern Himalayas. Alarmed at the change, local people are actively participating in conservation efforts

August 4, 2023 | Vishaka George

'Oh, that house? It’s in the sea now – there!'
, and • East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh

'Oh, that house? It’s in the sea now – there!'

In AP’s East Godavari district, residents of Uppada village rely on instinct to tell what the sea will claim next. The fast-receding shoreline has altered their livelihoods, social relations and collective memory

February 28, 2022 | Rahul M.

Battle of the bugs: on wings of climate change
, , and • Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh

Battle of the bugs: on wings of climate change

India is seeing huge declines in native insect species – several of them tied closely to our food security. But it’s hard to get humans viewing insects with the warmth they reserve for, say, furry mammals

September 22, 2020 | Priti David

The Great Coral Grief of Lakshadweep islands

India’s smallest union territory, just 1-2 metres above sea level on average – and where every seventh person is a fisherman – is losing its coral reefs and facing the impact of climate change at multiple levels

September 12, 2020 | Sweta Daga

In Thane, the rain has gone rogue
, , and • Thane, Maharashtra

In Thane, the rain has gone rogue

Dharma Garel and others in the Adivasi hamlets of Shahapur taluka of Maharashtra may not speak of ‘climate change’, but are daily confronting its effects directly, including erratic rainfall and falling yields

August 25, 2020 | Jyoti Shinoli

Churu: Blowing hot, blowing cold – mainly hot

In June 2019, Churu, Rajasthan, recorded a global high of 51°Celsius. For many here though that was just one milestone in an expanding summer and other odd changes in seasons that clearly point to climate change

June 02, 2020 | Sharmila Joshi

When Yamuna’s ‘dead fish will be fresher’

Effluents and apathy have reduced Delhi's lifeline to a sewer. Thousands of fish die annually while the Yamuna's original custodians have nowhere to go. It all feeds into and spurs a climate crisis

January 22, 2020 | Shalini Singh

Big city, small farmers, and a dying river

City farmers? Yes, sort of – in the national capital, struggling as a choked Yamuna river and the destruction of its floodplains spur the region’s climate crisis and devastates their livelihoods

December 19, 2019 | Shalini Singh
The shrinking pomfret of suburban Mumbai
, , and • Mumbai Suburban, Maharashtra

The shrinking pomfret of suburban Mumbai

Many in Versova Koliwada have a story to tell of dwindling fish – the reasons range from local-level pollution to global-scale warming. Both have combined to bring the impact of climate change to the city’s shores

December 4, 2019 | Subuhi Jiwani

Tamil Nadu’s seaweed harvesters in rough seas
, , and • Ramanathapuram district, Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu’s seaweed harvesters in rough seas

An unusual activity of the fisherwomen of Bharathinagar in Tamil Nadu keeps them more in the water than on boats. But climate change and overexploitation of marine resources are eroding their livelihoods

October 31, 2019 | M. Palani Kumar
Belated rains, beleaguered farmers in Bhandara
, , and • Bhandara, Maharashtra

Belated rains, beleaguered farmers in Bhandara

This district in Vidarbha, which for long had adequate water resources, is seeing new rainfall patterns. Now listed as a 'climate hotspot', the changes in Bhandara are bringing uncertainty and losses for paddy farmers

October 23, 2019 | Jaideep Hardikar
‘Cotton has now become a headache’
, , , and • Rayagada, Odisha

‘Cotton has now become a headache’

A chemical-intensive Bt cotton monoculture is spreading through Odisha’s Rayagada district – harming health, deepening debt, irreversibly eroding indigenous knowledge, and sowing the seeds of a climate crisis

October 7, 2019 | Aniket Aga and Chitrangada Choudhury

Sowing the seeds of climate crisis in Odisha

In Rayagada, Bt cotton acreage has risen by 5,200 per cent in 16 years. The result: this biodiversity hotspot, rich in indigenous millets, rice varieties and forest foods, is seeing an alarming ecological shift

October 4, 2019 | Chitrangada Choudhury and Aniket Aga

Counting sheep as grasslands shrink in Gujarat

Pastoralists from Kachchh walk great distances in search of grazing lands for their sheep in Gujarat, even as pastures disappear or become inaccessible, and climate patterns get ever more erratic

September 23, 2019 | Namita Waikar
Sundarbans: ‘Not a blade of grass grew…’
, , and • South 24 Parganas, West Bengal

Sundarbans: ‘Not a blade of grass grew…’

People in the Sundarbans of West Bengal, for long living on the edge, are now facing climate change – recurring cyclones, erratic rain, growing salinity, rising heat, depleting mangroves and more

September 10, 2019 | Urvashi Sarkar

‘The happy days are now just nostalgia’
, , and • West Kameng, Arunachal Pradesh

‘The happy days are now just nostalgia’

In the high mountains of the eastern Himalayas in Arunachal Pradesh, the nomadic Brokpa community is recognising climate change and devising coping strategies based on traditional knowledge

September 2, 2019 | Ritayan Mukherjee

Hailstorms at 43°C wreck farming in Latur
, , and • Latur, Maharashtra

Hailstorms at 43°C wreck farming in Latur

Villagers in Maharashtra’s Latur district are baffled by the heavy and intense hailstorms in summer that have hit them this past decade. Some farmers are giving up on orchards altogether

August 26, 2019 | Parth M.N.

‘Everything has turned upside down’ in Sangole

Villages in Sangole taluka of Maharashtra’s Solapur district are brimming with stories of how the old cyclical pattern of good rainfall and dry spells has been broken – and why and with what impact

August 19, 2019 | Medha Kale

‘Today we seek those fish in Discovery Channel’
, , and • Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu

‘Today we seek those fish in Discovery Channel’

Kadal Osai, a community radio of and for fisherfolk on Pamban island of Tamil Nadu’s Ramanathapuram district, turns three this week. And it's making waves – with climate change as its latest focus

August 12, 2019 | Kavitha Muralidharan

‘Why is the climate changing like this?’

Coffee and pepper farmers in Wayanad, Kerala, are reeling under losses caused by a rise in temperatures and erratic rainfall in a district whose residents once boasted of its ‘air-conditioned climate’

August 5, 2019 | Vishaka George

‘Perhaps we made the mountain god angry’
, , and • Leh, Jammu and Kashmir

‘Perhaps we made the mountain god angry’

Nomadic Changpa pastoralists at the high grazing grounds of Ladakh find their yak-related economy in a crisis that is driven by major climatic shifts in their fragile mountainous ecosystems

July 22, 2019 | Ritayan Mukherjee

Buffaloed by the climate in Kolhapur
, , and • Kolhapur, Maharashtra

Buffaloed by the climate in Kolhapur

Human-wildlife conflict is escalating in Radhanagari, Kolhapur, where the gaur buffalo are raiding nearby farms. This is spurred by deforestation, cropping changes, drought and fluctuating weather patterns

July 17, 2019 | Sanket Jain

It’s raining sand in Rayalaseema
, , and • Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh

It’s raining sand in Rayalaseema

Crop pattern changes, waning forest cover, an explosion of borewells, the death of a river, and more – have produced dramatic effects on land, air, water, forests and climate in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district

July 8, 2019 | P. Sainath