CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE RIGHT TO LIFE IN INDIA

Climate change isn't just an abstract problem anymore, now it's a real, pressing issue, and in India, you feel it everywhere. Heatwaves, floods, landslides, rising seas, trouble with food, these aren't headlines from somewhere far away. They're daily reality. The Indian legal system has always treated environmental protection seriously, mostly by expanding the right to a clean environment through Article 21 of the Constitution. But things changed in 2024 when the Supreme Court went a step further. They called the right to be free from the harms of climate change a fundamental right. That was a big shift, moving from basic environmental rules to something much deeper: climate constitutionalism. This paper looks at how climate change is now woven into the constitutional right to life. It follows the path of court decisions, human rights, climate justice, and fairness between generations. Courts have done a lot to bring climate rights into the spotlight. But without real laws and strong institutions backing them up, these rights risk staying just words on paper.