For a generation growing up with heatwaves, disappearing green spaces and water shortages, climate change isn’t some far-off future. It is already here — in the air they breathe, the water they struggle to find and the landscapes they watch disappear. Now, six young Indian artistes are putting that reality to a beat.‘Art is political’Knowing about the climate crisis is one thing; feeling connected enough to respond is another. “We believe art is political, and art is powerful,” says Abisha of Sollisai Sistahs. “Music can take an issue that feels distant or overwhelming and make it personal and emotional.” For her, that is where a song can go beyond awareness — “to question, connect and push people towards action”.For Kali, reaching people also means changing how the message is delivered. “I feel not a lot of people take climate change seriously. A song with a little bit of humour, a little bit of reality in it might make people think. My music is for the working-class people. So I’ve changed my approach to how I make songs now and am keeping it simple,” he says.Gamak sees emotional connection as the real power of music. “I don’t think one song can solve a problem as large as climate change. But if it makes even a few people feel something strongly enough to think or act differently, then it has done something meaningful,” she says.Seeing the world through a different lensMaking the songs has also changed the way the artistes look at the world around them. For Kali, some of the practices were already part of everyday life, but the song gave those choices a deeper context. “Now I’m also looking at it from a much deeper level and seeing it through a different lens, which has opened up more conversations for me, including about AI, its water consumption and its impact on heat. I’m able to have more conversations because I made this song and I’m reading more about it,” he says.That growing awareness connects with what Abisha describes as noticing “things we might have otherwise taken for granted” — the heat, disappearing water bodies, changing weather and the ways people are adapting.For Gamak, it has meant paying closer attention to “the ground beneath my feet, trees being cut down, construction replacing natural spaces”. Making the song, she says, made the crisis feel less like “a huge abstract issue” and more like “something happening right around me”.Devanshi says the shift is also about looking ahead. “As a Gen Z, I think it’s more of a worry of the upcoming generations,” she says. With a 10-year-old sister, she finds herself thinking about what the world might look like a decade or two from now. She points to worsening air quality, health problems and water becoming “costlier day by day, rarer day by day”.THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY MIXTAPE:Neer Kodu — Kali | Kannada, BengaluruKali’s Neer Kodu, meaning ‘give water’, draws from his experience of growing up in Laggeri, Bengaluru, where access to water was shaped by money and caste. The Kannada rap looks at the climate crisis through the everyday realities of working-class communities — water shortages, power cuts, rising heat and the struggle to stay cool. Rather than relying on climate jargon, Kali keeps the language simple, using humour and everyday observations to make the crisis relatable. His song also questions who really bears the cost of environmental destruction in an unequal city.Nisargacha Kaayda — Devanshi | Marathi, MaharashtraDevanshi’s Nisargacha Kaayda, or ‘law of nature’, questions what happens when nature is viewed only through the lens of human benefit and profit. The Marathi track brings together stories of animals entering human settlements, farmer suicides, indigenous communities losing land, deforestation and mining. It also looks at environmental degradation in Maharashtra, including the Konkan and Vidarbha regions, while giving space to communities and species that often have little voice in the conversation.Vann Katte — Naveen Koomar | Haryanvi, DelhiNaveen Koomar’s Vann Katte turns the rapper’s personal connection with the Aravallis into a reflection on environmental destruction. Drawing from his childhood memories of Firozpur Jhirka and the changing landscape he witnessed over the years, the Haryanvi rap takes on mining, real estate and rapid urbanisation that have eaten into the hills. Blending rap with elements of Ragini, the song asks a larger question: when development is celebrated as progress, whose development is it?Nasht Environment — Alkama | Hindi, DelhiDelhi-based rapper Alkama’s Nasht Environment turns the lens on the city’s pollution crisis, with a particular focus on south-east Delhi. Growing up with polluted air, water and surroundings as part of everyday life, the young rapper channels frustration, helplessness and anger into the track. Rather than leaving listeners with despair, the song attempts to turn grief over environmental loss into awareness, urgency and the impulse to act.Veppa Marathadiyila — Sollisai Sistahs | Tamil-Kannada, Tamil Nadu/BengaluruTamil Nadu’s all-women rap collective Sollisai Sistahs brings Tamil and Kannada folk with rap in Veppa Marathadiyila, or ‘under the neem tree’. The neem tree becomes a symbol of shade, community and a shared natural space that is increasingly disappearing. The track explores urban heat, water scarcity, disappearing lakes and trees, floods and the unequal impact of climate change, asking who gets affected first — and who is left to deal with the consequences. The song also connects the climate crisis with caste, class, gender and labour, foregrounding marginalised communities that have contributed least to the crisis but often bear its heaviest costs.Mitti — Gamak Sinha | Hindi, MumbaiMitti, Gamak Sinha’s Hindi track, gives the soil a voice. Instead of looking at climate change purely through its impact on humans, the song imagines the ground beneath us as a silent witness to discovery, creation, exploitation and destruction. Soil becomes more than a resource: it holds memories, supports life and carries the consequences of human choices. By allowing the land to tell its own story, Gamak turns an often-overlooked part of the climate conversation into something intimate and personal.
