‘Climate change’ is a global problem. How India will be affected by climate change ? How Himalayan and coastal states of India will be affected by climate change ?
Approach · directive: “how will India be affected”
What it asks · Describe the national impacts of climate change on India and then the specific risks to the Himalayan and coastal states.
The question has 3 parts — answer each
- Explain how India as a whole will be affected by climate change
- Explain how the Himalayan states will be affected
- Explain how the coastal states will be affected
Open with · India's dependence on the monsoon, long coastline and glaciated Himalaya make it highly exposed to a warming climate.
Cover
- National: erratic monsoon, heat waves and extreme rain reduce crop yields and raise water stress, hitting farmers and food security.
- National: health burdens from heat and disease, damage to infrastructure, biodiversity loss and economic cost from disasters.
- Himalaya: glacier retreat first swells and then reduces river flow, affecting the Ganga-Brahmaputra basins and hydropower.
- Himalaya: glacial lake floods, landslides, cloudbursts and forest fires threaten people, roads and tourism; apple and other horticulture zones shift uphill.
- Coast: sea-level rise, coastal erosion and salinity ingress harm delta areas such as the Sundarbans and low-lying farmland.
- Coast: stronger cyclones and storm surges endanger Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and coastal cities; fisheries and mangroves decline.
- Response: the National Action Plan on Climate Change (2008), State action plans, early warning, climate-smart farming and India's 2015 pledge under the Paris Agreement.
Close with · India needs both mitigation, through clean energy, and adaptation, through resilient farming, disaster preparedness and protection of the Himalaya and the coast.
Add value (verified)
- India's INDC (October 2015): reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from the 2005 level, and reach about 40 per cent non-fossil installed power capacity by 2030. India's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution: Working Towards Climate Justice — UNFCCC (submitted 2 October 2015) ↗“To reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 percent by 2030 from 2005 level”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2017, GS Paper III — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 352 words (UPSC limit 250) · Minimalist IAS
A monsoon-dependent economy, a coastline of about 7,500 km and a glaciated Himalaya make India one of the countries most exposed to a warming climate.
Impact on India as a whole
- Monsoon and farming: more variable rain, fewer rainy days with heavier bursts, floods and droughts in the same year; heat during grain filling hurts wheat and rain-fed kharif crops suffer, threatening food security and farm incomes.
- Water: stress on rivers and groundwater sharpens inter-State and rural-urban conflict.
- Health: more intense heat waves, malaria and dengue spreading to new areas, and lost productivity for outdoor workers.
- Economy and ecology: damage to roads, power and cities from extreme events, higher cooling demand, forced migration; coral bleaching, shifting forest types and species loss; a large poor and farm-dependent population has little capacity to adapt.
Himalayan states
- Glaciers and rivers: retreat first swells and then reduces the flows of the Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra, disturbing irrigation and hydropower downstream.
- Hazards: glacial lake outburst floods, cloudbursts and landslides, as in the Kedarnath disaster of 2013; longer dry spells raise forest-fire risk, as in Uttarakhand in 2016.
- Livelihoods: apple belts in Himachal Pradesh shift uphill, snow-dependent tourism turns uncertain, and fragile roads are repeatedly cut.
Coastal states
- Sea-level rise: erosion, submergence of low islands in the Sundarbans and Lakshadweep, and saline intrusion into the Ganga, Mahanadi, Krishna-Godavari and Cauvery deltas, ruining farmland and drinking water.
- Cyclones and surges: stronger storms, as with Phailin (2013) and Hudhud (2014), threaten Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat; urban floods as in Chennai (2015) grow costlier.
- Fisheries and mangroves: warming shifts fish stocks and bleaches corals, hitting fishing communities.
Response
- The National Action Plan on Climate Change (2008) with its mission on the Himalayan ecosystem, State action plans, cyclone early warning, climate-resilient crops, and India's 2015 pledge to cut the emissions intensity of GDP by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from 2005 levels and reach about 40 per cent non-fossil power capacity.
India must mitigate through clean energy and adapt through resilient farming, disaster preparedness and protection of the Himalaya and the coast, where the damage arrives first.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.