New Delhi, Nov 18 (IANS) With a rise in global temperatures due to climate change, more than 70 per cent of Indians reported personally experiencing severe heat waves, as well as droughts and water shortages, according to a report on Tuesday.

The report by Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, based on survey data collected between 2022 and 2025 from over 19,000 respondents, created Climate Opinion Maps that revealed how people’s experiences with extreme weather and their beliefs about climate change’s role in these events vary across India’s states and districts.

Nationally, a majority of Indians reported personally experiencing severe heat waves (71 per cent), agricultural pests and diseases (59 per cent), electricity power outages (59 per cent), water pollution (53 per cent), droughts and water shortages (52 per cent), and severe air pollution (51 per cent) in the past 12 months.

“As India rapidly develops while facing intensifying extreme weather, understanding how people across states and districts perceive and experience climate change is essential. These maps can help local and state leaders design climate action plans that reflect people’s lived realities and build durable public support for solutions,” said Dr. Jagadish Thaker, Senior Lecturer, University of Queensland, and one of the lead authors.

The report also showed geographic variation in experiences with extreme weather and related climate impacts.

In Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, 78 per cent of adults reported personally experiencing severe heat waves, among the highest in the country, along with Rajasthan (80 per cent), Haryana (80 per cent), and Odisha (80 per cent).

In comparison, just over half of adults in Kerala and Tamil Nadu reported the same (55 per cent and 52 per cent, respectively).

Similarly, while only 35 per cent of Indians nationwide report experiencing severe cyclones, that number rises to 64 per cent among people in Odisha, which was hit hard by Cyclone Dana in October 2024.

Odisha also stands out regarding droughts — over two-thirds of people in Odisha report experiencing droughts and water shortages.

“These data about how people across India are experiencing the impacts of climate change can help decision makers better understand public risk perceptions and design climate adaptation, communication, and sustainable development policies that meet Indians where they are,” said lead researcher Dr. Jennifer Marlon, at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

–IANS

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