As India’s election heats up, soaring temperatures from climate change find little mention in mainstream media

WITH INDIA'S MAMMOTH, seven-phase election underway from 19 April to 1 June, voters are stepping out in their millions, and party and booth workers are at work around the clock. Reporters across the country have hit the ground to provide essential election coverage, and election officials are spendings long days in the field to administer the vote. 

This year’s Indian election overlaps with forecasts for hotter-than-normal temperatures in the summer across much of the country (as well as the wider Southasian region), raising urgent concerns for the safety of all those who have to be outdoors. In all the furore of covering the election, the Indian media now has to grapple with a key new question – how best to cover climate change and the dangers of extreme heat, and to inform the country’s 900 million eligible voters about the causes and risks of rising heat as they brave the elements.