The recent flash flood that struck Dharali village in Uttarakhand is feared to have killed several people, with more than 60 missing. In an instant, an entire village disappeared. Could this have been avoided? Perhaps not entirely. After all, this was the consequence of years of accumulated vulnerabilities. But what makes it even more devastating is that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had issued warnings two days in advance, yet the message never reached the right people. Weak last-mile communication turned a forecast into a tragedy.
Data emerging from Dharali suggests that the material and human losses were catastrophic, underscoring the cost of ineffective last-mile communication. Worse still, we have become somewhat desensitised to such events. They have become frighteningly frequent. For instance, in the past years, flash floods, landslides, and cloudbursts turned into everyday news across the Himalayan states.
However, Dharali is not an isolated story. In India today, four to five hours of rain can put entire cities underwater. Villages in the hills live with the risk of sudden landslides and flash floods. The danger is clear. The question is: do we treat these events as just another headline? Or do we recognise them as a ticking bomb — one that will eventually go off closer to home for each of us?
This is where climate communication becomes crucial. It is not simply about sharing information. It is about making consequences real, urgent, and actionable. Climate communication needs to be aggressive, assertive, and consequence driven. When backed with simple, broken-down, easy-to-digest data, photos, or videos, it takes the message home more powerfully. This, added with the need of regional contextualisation in the messaging — both in language and framework, is as important. In fact, when governments use communication well, it can become an adaptation tool too.
The state of Odisha provides a powerful lesson here. Communities there respond quickly to cyclone warnings today. This didn’t happen overnight. It is the result of years of layered communication strategies. It’s important to note that climate communication is not dependent solely on systems like the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) or the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). These are crucial for immediate disaster alerts, yes — but they are only one piece of the puzzle. What has worked in Odisha is a broader approach: long-term public awareness campaigns, community-level engagement, and tailored messaging for diverse audiences. During evacuation protocols for cyclones, Odisha employs a multi-pronged strategy—loudspeaker announcements, door-to-door mobilisation by trained volunteers, and school-led community awareness drives in the lead-up to a disaster. This decentralised, people-centric communication has helped build trust and ensured that evacuation orders translate into swift, life-saving action. Together, these strategies have built trust, changed behaviour, and saved lives.
Climate communication is supposed to be accessible and should reach one and all. But here’s the catch: for most people, climate communication still feels like an elite conversation. It is discussed in English, at COPs, and in conference rooms, sometimes far removed from the realities of those most vulnerable. To the commoner, climate talk feels abstract, inaccessible, and distant. This needs to change.
Today everyone needs to be a climate communicator, and it needs some level of democratisation. And just as importantly, everyone working in the field of communications — whether in media, advertising, corporate PR, or digital storytelling, must incorporate climate into their agenda, the same way they now routinely incorporate tech or AI. Climate is no longer a niche subject. It is a defining issue of our time, and it belongs in every conversation. Global initiatives such as the ‘Covering Climate Now’ have already shown how collaborative journalism can amplify stories of climate impacts and solutions, bringing them to mainstream audiences worldwide. Referencing and learning from such initiatives can further democratise climate communication in India.
As a climate communicator working at the intersection of energy and environment in a research organisation, I have learned one thing consistently: good storytelling makes all the difference. Pairing a human element with a catchy headline—and often eye-catching visuals like photos, graphics, or videos—can transform even the most complex research into something clear, accessible, and relevant. Adding a personal perspective or insight further strengthens the message, because people connect more easily with lived experiences than with numbers alone.
And there’s research that backs this. Visuals in our communications shape how people perceive risks — by what they show, what they leave out, and how they frame the story. During extreme heat events, when people look to media for guidance, images and graphics can drive protective action more powerfully than words alone (Sheridan 2007; Strauss et al. 2022). They create a “cognitive shortcut” (Culloty et al. 2019) — grabbing attention, aiding recall, and helping even low-literacy communities interpret danger quickly.
But when communication fails, as in Dharali, as in the hurricane-struck Carolinas last year, or in Himalayan villages ignoring landslide warnings, lives are lost not because we didn’t know, but because we didn’t communicate enough, assertively enough, or far enough. Forecasts are not enough without assertive communication.
This is why climate communication today must be louder, sharper, and headline-worthy. It must not only create urgency but also amplify solutions. And this can be done via social media, videos, reels, infographics, data — the list of tools in endless. But what needs to begin is demystifying the topic and making people understand how the impact of it is not happening somewhere far off, but right where you are. Social media has already shown us how looping images and videos can drive a narrative, sometimes creating unnecessary panic. The lesson is not in the panic, but in the power of amplification. If the same energy is channelled toward climate risks and solutions, it can shift behaviour, prepare communities, and save lives.
Climate communication hence is not an afterthought. It is climate action. Without it, science sits in reports, and warnings remain unheard. With it, governments can act, communities can prepare, and societies can survive. If we don’t treat climate communication with the urgency it deserves, the next Dharali will not be a warning. It will be yet another headline of crisis.
Shrutikantha Kandali is senior communications specialist, Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC-India)
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth