00:00A swirl of blue, the clacking of looms, to the sound of handmade drums.
00:10India's craft industry includes weaving, natural dyeing, pottery and hand-painted items.
00:17The sector generates millions of dollars in export in spite of competition from machine-made goods.
00:24But now, climate change is the new disruptor for this ancient industry.
00:32Whether it's jackets made from wool or it's cotton saris, anything which is handmade, which involves craft.
00:41Hundreds of communities have gathered here at this one spot in Delhi.
00:45And what they're talking about is how subtle changes in the weather is impacting not just the craft that they weave, but also their livelihoods.
00:54I'm curious, how will India's once rich and vibrant craft economy cope with the tectonic shifts in the weather?
01:02And what kind of ingenious solutions are being deployed to deal with these changes?
01:11I've come to meet Poonam Gupta.
01:13Her shop in New Delhi sells high-end designer tiles, surfaces laced with artistic motives, some even lined with real gold.
01:23We wanted to start making tiles in India because, you know, not really people were making designer tiles in India.
01:34Designer tile was a concept from Italy or from Spain, where you would see Giorgio Armani tiles and, you know, all of that.
01:41And we were all importers.
01:43Poonam reached out to suppliers in Rajkot, Gujarat, considered the tile manufacturing hub for the entire country.
01:51Ordinary tiles are made by mixing natural materials into a slurry, pressing the powder into shapes, drying and then applying the designs, then firing them in a kiln for strength.
02:04Poonam got some of India's biggest fashion designers to share their artwork, which was then embossed onto the tiles, through a process called third-firing.
02:16At every step, the weather conditions, like rain or moisture, play a crucial role.
02:23So, we've been doing this since 2007.
02:26We didn't even think about changes in weather that time.
02:28We were only thinking design technique, design technique.
02:31And what base tile to use to make sure it looks good.
02:35That happened to us and it struck us like a bombshell because we couldn't produce in time when it was raining.
02:40The third-fired tiles used to be dried in the sun.
02:44But with erratic weather conditions, production slowed down.
02:48Over a period of time, I think we took almost 18 months to get to the right design and the right configuration of the dryer.
02:59And yes, there are no other options because you cannot rely on the weather now.
03:07Patel's observations are echoed by scientists.
03:10Data published in 2025 confirmed that India is experiencing solar dimming, a long-term decrease in sunlight that reaches the grounds, primarily due to aerosol pollution.
03:24Drying machines ended up as a climate solution, allowing both Poonam and Himen to continue their business.
03:32While they could afford to invest in the machines, I realise the smaller cottage industries may not be able to do so.
03:43Back in New Delhi, fashion designer Shani Himanshu is learning to pace his idea of slow fashion with extreme weather conditions.
03:52He's transformed his love for indigo to an immersive museum, devoted not just to the colour, but the process by which it was traditionally produced.
04:03His label is renowned for its use of indigenous cotton and 100% natural dyes.
04:10Indigo is beautiful. I mean, in terms of when first time I came across the whole living vat that itself kind of made me dive deeper into it.
04:22That how can be something living, make a colour which you adorn on your body.
04:28And then going back to the history, you know, the name itself has an India into it.
04:34Natural indigo dyeing involves creating a low oxygen vat using agents like fruit or iron with an alkali like lime to make the blue indigo pigment,
04:46which then binds to fibres, resulting in vibrant blues after oxidation.
04:53The meditative, chemical-free process he follows, he says, is good for our health and also the planet.
05:01He doesn't just stop at blue. Shani plays around with other colours too, generated from dried flowers.
05:09It's not just indigo that is being made in the premises here. There are other natural colours which you can also generate.
05:15This is the flower and it's used to generate another colour, for instance, hues of yellow.
05:21And this is the boiling process. This water is really hot and we're going to dip it in here.
05:27And they'll keep rolling it like this so that the colour spreads evenly. There you have it. That's the colour. A natural lovely sunshiny yellow.
05:45Dramatic changes in the weather also impacted his creative process.
05:52Now this unpredictability of the weather makes the artisans keep learning every day today what has been happening.
06:02That either reduces their yield, the amount they can produce in a day.
06:08It makes it difficult for them how to even plan things future because you don't know. You're depending on many variables.
06:15In Delhi's cold and winter dry months, it is the wats in which the colours are blended that must be kept as warm as a baby.
06:25So this is the intricate process involved in getting just the right shade of blue, whether it's a pale blue or it's a dark blue.
06:34Everything depends. All the magic of the process happens right here in the vat which is actually made of terracotta.
06:42They are using goat pellets, goat dung which is used to insulate this terracotta vessel.
06:49And what this makes sure is they can continue the production process while making sure that the microclimate is exactly the same irrespective of the temperature outside.
07:00He's also installed electric heaters to ensure that the vat is able to ferment to the right shades of blue.
07:08And that's where the importance of research, trial and error comes in.
07:13It kind of make a difference up to 6 degrees from the actual environmental temperature.
07:19So which kind of help us to maintain our temperature right and which kinds of get the same production quantities which we are able to pull out on summer as well.
07:28This visit has left me rejuvenated.
07:32I'm now off to a gathering of craft persons from across the Himalayas.
07:37A region that's also vulnerable to climate change.
07:41The artists are showcasing their art at a festival in Delhi.
07:46I meet craft chronicler and activist Juhi Pandey.
07:50She's been documenting how changes in the weather are impacting pastoral communities and even the wool produced by their sheep.
07:59Our local sheep wool, there were cycles of when you would do shearing specifically of the sheep because that's when the sheep is completely full of the right wool for you to now bring into production.
08:13And it's become very erratic for the shepherds to understand that.
08:17There used to be two shearing cycles, now it's become one shearing cycle.
08:21Change of weather affects the feed. There are different types of plants and grasses that our sheep and our camels etc feed on for their own health.
08:33It's their health that then creates also the wool and the hide that we get.
08:39Her exhibition conceptualised by the voice of fashion shows how the hands behind the craft work too need better representation.
08:50Climate change is only part of a larger problem of providing visibility to a fast perishing industry that's desperately in need of survival, support and recognition.
09:04I realise that the people I've met on this story are not only reviving India's ancient traditions but demonstrating innovation to keep Indian handicrafts surviving in a world ridden by climate change.
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