India for the past few years has been experiencing unprecedented blows from the weather. The vagaries of the weather seem to be quite rebellious, breaking all conventional patterns and predictions. From repeated extreme floods, cloud bursts to facing usual cyclones like Biparjoy (2023), India has been thrown off-track weather-wise. So, what’s the cause? Is it all Nature or perhaps something man-made?

Let’s review the eerie weather again. Himachal Pradesh reported 45 cloudbursts and 95 flash floods this year. Punjab got 75 per cent more rainfall than it does annually, while the floods are being compared to the great flood of 1988 in the state. India had the rainiest June and the second wettest monsoon in the past 50 years, with rainfall surpluses at 37 per cent. There were floods in Rajasthan killing hundreds and displacing thousands more, and even Gujarat received the highest rain in past 10 years. Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir have the worst track record when it comes to erratic monsoon, cloudbursts and flash floods. Kedernath in 2013 was only a disastrous beginning yet a good example to elucidate this.

The monsoon has been acting in a queer way. India endured its driest August for over 120 years in 2023. Himachal Pradesh saw the driest October in 2024 and the Southern Peninsular its sixth driest October in 123 years in 2023, with rainfall over 60 per cent below normal, attributed to factors like a weak northeast monsoon onset and the Cyclone Hamoon. Meghalaya’s Sohra, considered the wettest place on earth, received about 1/3rd of the rainfall it recorded in June 2025 vs June last year. One hopes it’s clear with all these examples that there is something strange happening around us.

Next come the usually warm winters in the Himalayan regions and shifting of heat and cold seasons in India. Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, UP, etc reported over 50 degrees Celsius for the past couple of years. The winters have been getting shorter and warmer, which is not only confusing humans but........

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