THE QUIET TOLL OF CLIMATE EXTREMES

THIS year hasn't given people much of a breather. A punishing summer rolled straight into a relentless monsoon, and many families have lurched from coping with extreme heat to mopping up after floods. We count lives lost and homes damaged, as we should. But we rarely make space for the quieter toll-anxiety, sleeplessness, trauma, and the long shadow these events cast on people's ability to study, work, and rebuild their lives.

- SURYAPRABHA SADASIVAN

The summer of 2025 was one of the harshest on record for India. The Lancet Countdown warns that Indians are exposed to hundreds of hours of heat stress annually, and doctors across India reported spikes in psychiatric emergencies, sleep disorders and confusion during the peak heatwave. Even the ministry of earth sciences has acknowledged symptoms such as anxiety, palpitations, and behavioural changes linked to extreme temperatures, showing that the mental health toll of heat is no longer invisible.

Then came the rains. By early September, all-India monsoon rainfall was nearly 8 percent above normal, which is good for reservoirs but was marked by an erratic intensity. In many places, the rains arrived with cloudbursts, floods, and landslides that uprooted families, especially the poorest in low-lying settlements or on unstable slopes.

While the national numbers for 2025 are being compiled, last year offers a perspective: 5.4 million disaster displacements through 2024, including 2.4 million due to monsoon floods. Displacement is not just physical movement; it is psychological dislocation that can linger for years. Research after floods in Uttarakhand, Kerala and Assam found consistently high prevalence of posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety among survivors, often persisting long after the waters recede.