Almost 970 million Indians are voting in general elections amid sweltering heat and unpredictable weather extremes exacerbated by human-caused climate change, leading to loss of livelihood, forced migration and increasingly difficult living conditions for millions across the country. Voters are looking for politicians who promise relief, stability and resilience to the wide-ranging and damaging effects of a warming climate.
Vaibhav Maske's millet farm was dry to the bone in early May, even though he dug three borewells 600 feet deep looking for water. The 25-year-old lives in Marathwada, one of the most acutely affected heat and drought-prone regions in western Maharashtra state, and farmers there say the current summer is the worst major drought in almost a decade. But politicians haven’t been paying attention. “Politicians are only talking about religion and caste.
India’s eastern coasts have long been prone to cyclones, but the number of intense storms is increasing along the country's coast. Last year was India's deadliest cyclone season in recent times, killing 523 people and costing an estimated $2.5 billion in damage. Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said their studies found that “floods have increased threefold since the 1950s and cyclones have increased by 50% since the 1980s.
Thousands in Assam state are dependent on fishing and selling produce like rice, jute and vegetables from their small farms on floating river islands in the Brahmaputra River, known locally as Chars. When it floods, residents of Char islands often row in makeshift rafts to dry land, and return once it subsides. But floods are now more devastating and unpredictable because of climate change, locals say, making it harder to stay on the islands.
In Shimla city in India’s mountainous Himachal Pradesh state, apple farmer Sanjay Chauhan recalls the deadly rainfall in the region last year that killed 428 people and broke local rainfall records. “I had not seen anything like this,” Chauhan said. He incurred $5,000 worth of damage to his orchards in the heavy rain, and property damage across the state was estimated at $1.42 billion.