-The Hindu For public pressure to drive climate action, we need to consider climate catastrophes as largely man-made In the absence of COVID-19, climate change-induced disasters would have been India’s biggest red alert in recent years. The heatwave that scorched Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and New Delhi this year; torrential downpours in south India in 2021; and the super cyclone Amphan that battered West Bengal and Odisha in 2020 are symbols of...

-Scroll.in With climate change, farmer suicides and agicultural distress, the drought-resilient coarse grain that requires few resources could be the answer. Already caught in a vicious cycle of debt and declining yields, Indian farmers now face new challenges from climate change. The Ministry of Earth Science, in a 2020 report, predicts, “Rising temperatures, heat extremes, and increasing year-to-year rainfall variability are likely to adversely impact crop yield.” India’s Green Revolution of the 1960s...

-TheIndiaForum.in Since 2015, there has been a sharp rise in farmer suicides in Punjab. Farmers in the state borrow large loans at high interest rates; some of which is used for consumption. According to official data, 51% of farmer suicides in Punjab are due to a high level of indebtedness, mostly to institutions. Farmer suicides are back in focus. Media reports suggest that in April 2022 alone 14 Punjab farmers died by...

-United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) A prolonged and deadly heatwave has hit large swaths of India and Pakistan affecting hundreds of millions of people and sparking food and energy shortages. Experts say the extreme heat is a grim preview of what the climate crisis has in store for a region home to over 1 billion people. Temperatures in India’s capital and parts of Pakistan have at times reached close to 50°C, killing...

-Scroll.in A global wheat crisis has made the world pay attention to India’s scorching temperatures. But more needs to be done to make agriculture climate resilient. India experienced its hottest March this year since the Indian Meteorological Department started recording weather data in 1901. April was no better: the heatwave continued and 14 weather stations breached their previously registered highest temperature records. The heatwave made global headlines since it scorched the wheat crop...