Climate impacts in India: Experience, worry, and attribution to global warming
BATHINDA: As the climate warms, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe across India. Indians have recently experienced extreme heat waves, floods, water shortages, and irregular monsoon patterns.
These events not only harm lives and livelihoods but also shape how people perceive both climate change and extreme weather. To better understand public experiences and worries about these events, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) and CVoter surveyed 10,751 people in India from December 5, 2024, to February 18, 2025.
Most respondents said they had personally experienced at least one extreme weather event or related impact in the past 12 months.
Majorities of Indians said they had experienced severe heat waves (71%), agricultural pests and diseases (60%), power outages (59%), water pollution (53%), droughts and water shortages (52%), and severe air pollution (52%).
Large majorities are worried about extreme weather or related impacts harming their local area. More than half of Indians say they are 'very worried' about extinctions of plant and animal species (61%), severe heat waves (56%), agricultural pests and diseases (62%), droughts and water shortages (58%), water pollution (55%), severe air pollution (54%), and famines and food shortages (51%).
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It has been found that majority of Indians think global warming is affecting extreme weather and related impacts in India. Half or more Indians say global warming is affecting extinctions of plant and animal species (64%), severe heat waves (62%), agricultural pests and diseases (62%), droughts and water shortages (60%), severe air pollution (59%), water pollution (57%), severe cyclones (54%), famines and food shortages (53%), severe floods (53%), monsoons (52%), and severe storms (50%) 'a lot'.
Additionally, 43% of Indians think global warming affects electricity power outages 'a lot.'
It was found that extreme weather events and related impacts are common and deeply worrisome for many people in India. Climate and weather-related risks are not abstract concerns for many Indians but are part of people's day-to-day lives. Moreover, worry about local impacts is widespread and reflects people's personal experiences with these events.
And, after hearing a definition of global warming, most respondents say that it is affecting these events (especially plant and animal extinctions, heat waves, and agricultural disruptions).
However, a significant proportion (32%) of people in India have never heard of global warming. These findings highlight the critical need to raise public awareness about climate change and local climate impacts and reinforce the urgency of both reducing carbon pollution and preparing for future extreme events.
The report is based on findings from a nationally representative survey of adults (18+) in India. A nationally representative sample of respondents was contacted by mobile telephone using predictive dialing technology and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). The survey was translated into 12 languages (Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Odiya, Bangla, Asamiya, and English) and respondents received the survey in one of those languages based on their geographic location.
National Census-based demographic parameters were used to create sampling targets for gender, education, and socioeconomic status. The results were also weighed after completion of the data collection to adjust the final sample to match national demographic parameters on gender, age, education, income, religion, and urbanicity.
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