Most Indians have personally experienced at least one extreme weather event or related impact in 2024, finds a recently published survey, highlighting that the impact of climate change is an everyday reality, deeply impacting daily life and public perception.
About 71% of those surveyed said they had experienced severe heat waves, while more than half had experienced other extreme weather-related impacts such as agricultural pests and diseases (60%), water pollution (53%), droughts and water shortages (52%), and severe air pollution (52%). The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) and CVoter surveyed a representative sample of 10,751 Indians from December 5 to February 18, 2025, on experiences and worries about extreme weather events.
2024 was the warmest year in India since 1901, with many parts experiencing heat wave conditions in the summer months. The country also experienced cyclones, extremely heavy rainfall, floods, and landslides.
“The fact that a large majority of Indians report personal experience with extreme weather should be a signal that climate change is not distant in time and space anymore but is happening right here and right now,” said Marija Verner, Postdoctoral Associate at the Yale School of the Environment and lead author of the survey report. “It also signals how vulnerable people in India are to its impacts. Reports of personal experiences with extreme weather indicates that people might be more likely to start connecting the dots between extreme weather and climate change.”
Public worry about extreme weather impacts on local environment runs high with 62% of those surveyed saying they are “very worried” about agricultural pests and diseases. 61% were worried about extinctions of plant and animal species and more than half expressed similar concern about heat waves, water scarcity, pollution, and food shortages. Worry though, could be a strong driver for action, says Verner. “The simplest way to start (action) would be to talk about climate change with family and friends. It’s important to turn climate change into a regular conversation topic so that it would become ingrained in our culture as something elected politicians and policy makers would feel obliged to address.”
After hearing a definition of global warming, most respondents said that it is affecting plant and animal extinctions, heat waves, and agriculture, says the May 2025 survey. However, another survey published in 2024, shows that 32% of Indians surveyed had never heard of the term “global warming”. These findings highlight a gap in public awareness and that there is still work to be done in educating people about climate change and improving climate literacy, says Verner. “A majority of Indians are connecting the dots as India has been making strides in science, education, and overall growth in human capital. Perhaps it’s also related to the rich linguistic landscape of India – the terms for climate change probably vary across languages. With this, it might be more complex to ensure we’re having the same conversation about climate change,” she says.
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