NPR

As India's Climate Changes, Farmers In The North Experiment With New Crops

Farmers are starting to grow new crops in winter, when their fields usually lie fallow. Meanwhile, air pollution, which contributes to climate change, is weakening India's solar energy production.
In the upper reaches of the northern state of Uttarakhand, small villages are rain- and snow-fed. As snowfall has declined, farmers are starting to plant crops in winter, when fields would usually lie fallow.

On a recent weekday, Vamsi Komarala guides me up to the rooftop of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, where he teaches physics. Fields of solar panels adorn the buildings.

I swipe an index finger across one of the panels to see if weeks of monsoon rains have washed it clean. My finger comes back filthy with grit.

Vamsi tells me the panels are washed twice a week, then explains the grime: "That is because in New Delhi, we have a lot of dust."

Dust is just one factor. The capital city and much of northern India are routinely shrouded in man-made pollutants. In fact, Delhi vies with Beijing for the dirtiest air in the world.

Many of India's 1.3 billion people — a fifth of the world's population — that is cutting short lives, stunting children's cognitive development and

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