Microfinance institutions (MFIs), financial organisations that give small loans and other banking services to low-income people, are exposed to climate risk given their focus on low-income and vulnerable populations, says a policy brief by Climate and Sustainability Initiative (CSI), a research institute based in New Delhi.

The policy brief, titled Micro Loans, Macro Shocks: How is Climate Risk Reshaping India’s Microfinance Industry, highlights that 60% of the overall microfinance portfolio of ₹3.81 trillion is concentrated in agriculture and allied activities, making it highly exposed to climate-sensitive livelihoods.

It notes that recurring droughts, floods, heat stress, and erratic monsoons are reducing borrower incomes and disrupting local demand. Consequently, financial strains among vulnerable borrowers of MFIs are rising.

As per the report, agriculture and allied activities include agriculture, agro-based enterprise, animal husbandry, and fisheries; they have 60% exposure. Non-agro activities include trading and transport, handicraft, microbusiness, and 32% exposure. Housing and other non-income-generating activities, such as water and clean energy, have 3.6% and 4.4% exposure, respectively.

A 2025 report by Agri3 Fund, HSBC India, and MicroSave Consulting claims that India’s 120 million smallholder farmers face increasing financial instability due to climate change, which has cut farm incomes by 15-18%.

Building on this, the CSI policy brief connects these agriculture-related risks with microfinance lending exposure.

It also analyses regional vulnerability and states that the microfinance industry has its highest portfolio exposure in eastern India (33%), as that region ranks among the most climate-vulnerable. The region includes Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

“This intersection of high credit concentration and high climate vulnerability suggests a significant regional risk exposure for the microfinance industry,” it says.

The southern region, which accounts for 28% of the portfolio, shows moderate climate vulnerability. Central India, with an 18% share in the portfolio, faces moderate to high vulnerability, while the western region, accounting for 11%, faces low to moderate climate risks. The northern region, with a 7% portfolio exposure, also falls into the low to moderate vulnerability category, except for Jammu and Kashmir, which faces high vulnerability. In contrast, the northeastern region, with the lowest portfolio exposure at 3%, is highly vulnerable, particularly to floods, landslides, and extreme rainfall.

“The overall regional exposure to climate hazards across India underscores the urgent need for a climate-sensitive approach within the sector,” the policy brief says.

Banner image: A rural cooperative gathering. Representative image by Marcel Crozet/ILO via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

A study that explored the impacts of climate change on human migration patterns, specifically through the lens of climate-induced forced migration and internal displacement within rural India, shows that climate change does not directly cause migration. Instead, it acts through a chain of impacts — particularly by disrupting agriculture, depleting water resources, and weakening local economies. The environmental stresses become critical only when combined with existing socio-economic vulnerabilities and weak governance systems, according to the research.

The study, using secondary data, was based on the case of Meenakshipuram, a village in Tamil Nadu where the residents abandoned it, turning it into a ghost village. Meenakshipuram had grabbed headlines a few years ago because of its only resident Kandaswamy, now dead, who refused to leave the village even when his children decided to move out of it.

Declining rainfall, repeated droughts, and rising temperatures led to severe water shortage and agricultural collapse there. However, what ultimately drove people out was not climate stress alone but the absence of institutional support, poor infrastructure, limited livelihood alternatives, and social marginalisation, the study reports.

According to the lead author of the study Prasanta Moharaj, assistant professor of sociology at Dayananda Sagar University, Bengaluru, Kandaswamy continued to live in Meenakshipuram even when everyone left due to emotional attachment to his land, his home, and memories of his family. The study highlights that Kandaswamy’s story exemplifies that not everyone abandons climate-affected villages. The decision hinges on the adaptive capacity of the place — better infrastructure, policy support, and alternative livelihoods can alter the decision and encourage people to stay on. “The decision to migrate (by Meenakshipuram residents) or not was not just driven by environmental or economic factors; it was also shaped by social change and emotional factors,” Moharaj explains.

He draws parallels to his hometown in Odisha’s Kendrapara district, a coastal region in the spotlight for climate change-induced migration. “There is a cluster of seven island villages there, locally called ‘Satabhaya’ (meaning “seven brothers”). These villages were once inhabited, with people dependent on agriculture and fishing. Today, most of them have been evacuated, and the situation is quite similar to Meenakshipuram,” he says, adding, “Many of the residents have been displaced there, partly because the area is socio-politically complex, with a large number of long-settled migrants.”

Migration, therefore, emerges as a compelled response, not a voluntary choice. It represents the last available survival strategy when communities lose the ability to sustain livelihoods locally.

Banner image: A family prepares a makeshift tent on a road after evacuating the flooded banks of Yamuna River. Representative image. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

The Indian government has notified draft rules for the management of tar balls that wash ashore, proposing that pollution from them be declared a state disaster. Tar balls are sticky, balled up remnants of petroleum from oil spills and oil extraction activity, which are considered hazardous for both health and the environment.

The rules propose making oil “generators” — including oil tankers, oil companies, ships, oil facility owners and transporters — responsible for preventing oil spills by following protocols under the National Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (NOSDCP), set by the Indian Coast Guard. Failure to prevent oil spills would result in generators paying environmental compensation for any “loss, damage or injury and expenditure incurred” from the spill. Tar balls are considered hazardous for health and the environment because they carry heavy metals and organic pollutants.

The Central Pollution Control Board is expected to come up with a standard operating procedure for the handling of tar balls. Once the tar balls wash up along the coasts, state governments must take action under the Disaster Management Act, the draft rules say. District authorities are responsible for the collection, management, and transportation of tar balls to a Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility (TSDF) “in an environmentally sound manner.” State and district authorities are also liable to pay environmental compensation if they fail to clean up the tar balls, the draft rules say.

Because tar balls are high in calorific value, the rules also make provisions for their disposal either through incineration in waste-to-energy plants or cement plants. Both the Indian Coast Guard and National Remote Sensing Agency will provide support in terms of surveillance and detection of oil spills.

Tar balls are typically deposited along the Indian coast in the monsoon months due to wind circulation patterns. In 2019, researchers from the National Institute of Oceanography linked tar balls along the coast of Goa with the Bombay High offshore oil rig using biomarker fingerprints. The study decisively revealed that tar balls not only came from oil spills, but also from rigging activity and tanker-washing — a practice where oil tankers are cleaned out between voyages using crude oil.

The rules, once finally notified, will come into effect after one year. The draft notification is open to suggestions and objections till June 2.

Banner image: An oil tar ball washed ashore on a beach. Representative image. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Species File: Exploring India’s biodiversity, one species at a time.

Found across forests, grasslands, agricultural fields and urban areas, honey bees (Apis spp.) are insects known for producing honey and beeswax. They collect the nectar of flowers and store it in wax combs as a food source to feed immature larvae and adults during winter.

In India, domesticated honey bee species include the Indian hive bee (Apis cerana indica) and the European bee (Apis mellifera). Wild species include the rock bee (Apis dorsata) and little bees (Apis florea). As key pollinators, honey bees play a crucial role in fertilising flowering plants, supporting biodiversity, and enhancing horticulture and agricultural yields. Data from 2023, shows that honeybees alone contribute to approximately 20% of total crop yield in India. 

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), while not all species of honey bees have been assessed, pollinators globally are in decline due to environmental threats. In India, honey bees are not listed under a specific schedule of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, but are recognised for their ecological and economic importance.

Globally, various studies have linked climate change to potential population decline in bees. One study describes how a mismatch between flowering time due to global warming and bees’ activity led to fitness losses in the insect. In addition, bees are also facing the consequences of urbanisation, including pesticide exposure and habitat loss.

In an earlier story that Mongabay-India published in 2020, K Lakshmi Rao, assistant director, Central Bee Research and Training Institute, Pune, said, “Habitat loss and the lack of flowering trees in cities are huge issues. Sound, air, and light pollution also stress the bees.”

To reduce ecological stress faced by honey bees, and support pollination, India is building bee corridors along highways. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has announced a first-of-its-kind initiative to develop pollinator or bee corridors along its stretches, comprising flowering trees and plants to ensure availability of nectar and pollen throughout the year.

Curious to learn more about honey bees? Explore our stories on migratory beekeeping in Assam and the role of stingless bees in pollination.

Banner image: Apis dorsata. Image by Arpit K. Gaur via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Whitley Fund for Nature, a UK charity, has announced the 2026 Whitley Award for Barkha Subba to lead the first grassroots protection effort for Himalayan salamanders and their wetland habitat in the Darjeeling Himalaya, West Bengal. The award, also known as the Green Oscars, supports grassroots conservation leaders in the Global South.

A scientific adviser at the local NGO Federation of Societies for Environmental Protection, Subba’s project is designed to restore Himalayan salamander habitat, remove invasive species, screen for the deadly chytrid fungal disease, as well as engage local people in awareness programmes, promoting sustainable land use and eco-friendly tourism.

Talking about her subject of research and conservation, Subba says, “Meeting a salamander feels like meeting a messenger from deep evolutionary time – a reminder of how long nature has endured and how quickly we can lose it.”

Endemic to India, Nepal and Bhutan, the Himalayan salamander, which can grow up to 17 cm in length and live for up to 11 years, was once widely distributed across Darjeeling’s wetlands and forest fringes. The species is now listed as Vulnerable on the Red List of the IUCN as wetlands are increasingly drained, filled, polluted or disturbed.

Salamanders’ return to their natal sites to breed and lay eggs, a process called philopatry, makes them highly vulnerable to changes in habitat and an indicator of wetland health. With her Whitley Award, Subba aims to focus on seven of the most critical breeding sites of the rare and evolutionarily distinct amphibian. She says her goal is to create a transboundary framework for wetland protection that extends to Nepal and Bhutan.

Wetland loss, unregulated tourism and tea garden land diversification are altering habitat and shrinking breeding areas. Approximately 30 breeding sites remain locally, many of which lie outside protected areas. Subba says, “What keeps me going is what I see on the ground. I see communities standing up for places they love. I see young people choosing to protect rather than exploit. I see forest officials ready to listen and cooperate. I see a species that has survived for millions of years, still trying, still returning home.”

The wetlands where Himalayan salamanders breed are culturally revered water bodies, associated with local deities and rituals. In many villages, disturbing them has historically been discouraged. Subba will also focus on strengthening partnerships with local communities, tea estate managers and government agencies to cover the salamander’s breeding sites in areas that have been chosen for conservation.

The Whitley Award is given annually to those achieving exceptional success in grassroots protection for threatened species and habitats. In addition to Subba, the other winner from India is Parveen Shaikh, who is leading efforts to protect the endangered Indian skimmer along India’s rivers, especially the Chambal.

Watch this video on how Barkha Subba’s works helps protect Darjeeling’s Himalayan salamander.

Banner image: Images courtesy of Subhrajit Sen.

Scientist Parveen Shaikh has been awarded a 2026 Whitley Award by the UK charity Whitley Fund for Nature, recognising her efforts to protect the endangered Indian skimmer along India’s rivers. The award comes with funding to expand her community-led conservation model from Chambal river to Prayagraj, where the Ganga and Yamuna rivers converge.

The Indian skimmer is identified by its vivid orange bill and its habit of flying low over water, skimming the surface to catch fish. India holds over 90% of the world’s population of the bird, with roughly 3,000 individuals, making the country critical to the species’ survival. The birds breed on seasonal sandbars and mid-river islands, making their nests vulnerable to changes in river flow, predators, and human disturbance.

When Shaikh, who works with the Bombay Natural History Society, began her “Guardians of the Skimmer” initiative on the Chambal river, the local Indian skimmer population stood at around 400 individuals in 2017. As of 2025, the population has grown to approximately 1,000. Nest survival has nearly doubled, rising from 14 percent to 27 percent, a direct result of community involvement and scientific monitoring.

“Local guardians help identify new sandbars, monitor nests, and prevent disturbance during the breeding season. Some now proudly refer to the skimmers as “our birds,” which reflects a growing sense of ownership,” says Shaikh.

With the Whitley Award funding, her team will now expand to Prayagraj in Uttar Pradash, a place of cultural significance and also home to breeding populations of Indian skimmers, river lapwings, and little terns. The challenges here include heavy boat traffic, fishing activity, religious practices along the riverbank, and urban pollution all increase pressure on nesting colonies. The team plans to appoint new local guardians, install predator-proof fencing, and use GPS mapping for real-time nest monitoring.

The Whitley Award, also known as the Green Oscars, is given annually to those achieving exceptional success in grassroots community-led protection for threatened species and habitats. This year, the award includes two Indians among the six winners. In addition to Shaikh, the other winner from India is Barkha Subba who is leading the first grassroots movement to protect the Himalayan salamander and its fragile wetland habitat in the Darjeeling Himalaya, West Bengal.

Read about Parveen Shaikh’s work in Chambal river and the community champions that she works with in this 2021 story on Jagdish, one of the nest guardians.

Banner image: Images courtesy of Parveen Shaikh/Whitley Award.