Climate crisis: pushing people out of their homes

The climate crisis is sinking homes, driving displacement and accelerating crop loss. It’s not happening in the future, but a crisis unfolding right now. A collection of on-ground reports of people living near forests, mountains, seas and rivers who have been worst hit.

Curated by Riya Behl

Buffaloed by the climate in Kolhapur

by Sanket Jain
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.
Kolhapur, Maharashtra

‘Our houses are vanishing. Nobody cares’

by Urvashi Sarkar
This story traces climate-related displacement and the migration of people between Sagar and Ghoramara Islands in West Bengal. It covers the vanishing of islands, homes and livelihoods.
South 24 Parganas, West Bengal

The Great Coral Grief of Lakshadweep islands

by Sweta Daga
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.
Bitra, Lakshadweep

Belated rains, beleaguered farmers in Bhandara

by Jaideep Hardikar
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.
Bhandara, Maharashtra

‘Perhaps we made the mountain god angry’

by Ritayan Mukherjee
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.
Leh, Jammu and Kashmir

Climate Change: Perspectives from India

by Sunita Narain, Prodipto Ghosh, N.C. Saxena, Jyoti Parikh, and Preeti Soni
This collection of essays looks at the climate crisis from the perspective of the poor and makes recommendations for the way forward. It draws our attention to myths around India’s stand in the global climate change negotiations, covers the gendered impact of this crisis and provides a framework for a just and effective global climate deal.
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