Vulnerable infrastructure

Villagers carry illegally scavenged coal from an open-cast coal mine in Dhanbad. While India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has announced plans to double the country’s coal production by 2020 (as of 2015), the Earth Security Group points out that many of the new coal-based Ultra Mega Power Projects will be on the coast where exposure to extreme weather is highest.

Families left behind

Saroj and her children in the north Indian village of Bhatuan are pictured a year after Saroj’s husband – a farmer – killed himself, leaving behind thousands of dollars of debt. Erratic weather events including late monsoon rains, drought and heavy rainstorms have seen hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers kill themselves over the past 20 years.

Supporting farmers

Critics have blamed India’s government for not providing enough financial support for farmers who lose crops and are often indebted to local loan sharks. At the start of 2016 the government approved a $1.3bn insurance scheme to help protect farmers against crop failures, although news outlets have highlighted the fact that the scheme is potentially also a way to woo voters ahead of state elections in states including Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Water trains

Indian authorities have been dispatching repurposed oil tankers filled with hundreds of thousands of litres of water to drought-hit Latur in Maharashtra state. Weak monsoon rains have undermined water supplies in recent years, but the India Meteorological Department’s latest forecast suggests above normal monsoon rains for 2016.

Chennai flooding

A couple squats beside a flooded road under a picture of Jayalalithaa, chief minister of Tamil Nadu state. Last December, Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu, suffered serious flooding following the highest rainfall for 100 years, which left at least 347 dead and tens of thousands evacuated. Now Chennai officials are seeking to learn from other cities such as New Orleans and Lent in the Netherlands to develop a more flood-resistant city.

Community displacement

A woman crosses a dry riverbed near Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Last September the Indian government launched a project to link 37 of the country’s rivers to prevent drought and flooding. Critics, however, have raised concerns about potential large-scale displacement of communities and serious environmental effects, such as the submersion of forests and national parks.

Deadly protests

India has overtaken China to become the world’s fastest growing major economy. But two years of drought and a failure to create jobs for a burgeoning population have left millions struggling, and led to protests in Delhi earlier this year in which at least 19 people died.

Low carbon shift

Workers repair electrical wires along the banks of the Ganges river in Allahabad. In advance of international talks to reach a deal on tackling global warming in Paris last December, India – the world’s third biggest greenhouse gas emitter – pledged to source 40% of its electricity from renewables and other low-carbon energy sources by 2030.

Solar power

A worker cleans a solar panel at Rabi Rashmi Abasan, India’s first solar housing project on the northern fringes of Kolkata. At the Paris COP21 climate summit, Modi launched an international solar alliance of more than 120 countries with French president François Hollande. ‘The dream of universal access to clean energy is becoming more real. This will be the foundation of the new economy of the new century,’ Modi said.