On its 11th anniversary tomorrow, December 2, Gaon Connection is set to release its latest book — Climate Connection Report 2023 — which documents 75 stories of climate change from rural India where two-thirds of the citizens of the country live.

Climate Connection Report 2023 is an effort to bring together Gaon Connection’s extensive reportage on climate change this year in the form of a free-to-download book so that policy makers, researchers, and citizens can join these dots and see a pattern in the scattered stories of the changing environment.

This book, which will soon be available on Gaon Connection’s website — www.gaonconnection.com, is also an attempt to bring rural India to the front and centre of climate change conversations, policies and response.

Along with the release of the book, Gaon Connection is also launching its longterm project — Climate Connection — where climate science meets ancient wisdom.

Talking about the book, Neelesh Misra, Founder of Gaon Connection, said, “My daughter Vaidehi is eight years old. As all of us know, when we become parents, our worldview changes. And as parents we often wonder, what will be the life of my child like, when they grow up? What will life be like when temperatures are rising, sea levels are inching up, and climatic patterns are changing dangerously?”

“So this book is not just a piece of academic work, this is personal and it should be personal for every parent who is living in an era whose cruelty on our climate shall impact the era in which our children, and the children of hundreds of millions of other fellow humans, are going to live,” he said.

Gaon Connection is releasing this landmark book at a time when the world’s most important global meet to address climate change — COP 28 (The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC) — is underway in Dubai, UAE from November 30 to December 12, 2023.

About the Climate Connection Report 2023

The Climate Connection Report 2023 has 75 stories of climate change from rural India (for the year 2023). And not just chest beating but also a section dedicated to solutions stories which document in detail how people in rural India are responding to climate related changes. There is so much to learn from these scattered examples.

“Every now and then we read stories of how rainfall has led to crop destruction, or droughts are fuelling migration but this is possibly the first time a book puts together an entire year of climate change impact,” said Misra.

According to Nidhi Jamwal, Managing Editor of Gaon Connection, climate change is no more just an environmental issue; it is a global human rights issue.

“2023 has been a year like never before. It is on track to be the hottest year ever on record. And that means it is also a year of record human suffering,” said Jamwal.

With its presence in 470 districts of the country, Gaon Connection, which is India’s biggest rural communication and insights platform, has its ear to the ground and through its network of reporters and community journalists, has reported on issues of climate change almost every other day.

Gaon Connection is the voice of rural India where two-thirds of the citizens of the country live, who, away from media spotlight, suffer the impacts of a changing climate. They have faced repeated crop losses, multiplying wage losses, and increasing health problems, due to increasing temperatures, erratic monsoon, or recurring floods.

“These are concerns that should trouble us all no matter where we live as rural India is also the food bowl of the world. What reaches your plate in a fine dining restaurant in Gurugram or Mumbai is the result of a toiling farmer who worked hard in her or his field tending crops for months till it was ready for harvest,” said Jamwal.

The book is divided into six sections, with one section dedicated solely to Solutions Stories because we believe that there is always a strong human will to respond to the challenge of the century, she concluded.

The Climate Connection Report 2023 will be available for a free download tomorrow, December 2, on Gaon Connection’s website www.gaonconnection.com