Delhi’s winter smog has made one thing painfully clear: climate risks are no longer distant scenarios — they’re part of everyday life. Floods, heatwaves, crop losses, polluted air… communities across India are facing climate shocks more frequently, while NGOs are being pushed to act faster and communicate better.
To understand how technology can help, we recently hosted a Glific webinar on WhatsApp chatbots for climate action, joined by:
Thomas
Fractional CxO at Project Tech4Dev. He works closely with NGOs like SEEDS, Farmers for Forests, and Shujaaz, helping them strengthen product strategy, build scalable tech systems, and design data architectures. Before joining Tech4Dev, Thomas worked with Glassdoor and Cisco and co-founded startups.
Pravin
VP – Research & Tech at Farmers for Forests. He focuses on carbon calculation, carbon credit methodology, and remote monitoring using AI + drone data. Previously at Blue Yonder, Pravin has deep experience in analytics, supply-chain modelling, and systems design.
Together, they shared two powerful stories of how WhatsApp chatbots are transforming climate resilience on the ground.
Story 1: SEEDS — When a Cyclone Hit West Bengal, WhatsApp Became a Lifeline
SEEDS has spent 31 years helping communities prepare for and recover from disasters. But one challenge has always persisted:
How do you collect accurate damage reports quickly, especially when families are already overwhelmed?
After Cyclone Dana (2024) in West Bengal, SEEDS piloted a new approach using the Glific WhatsApp chatbot. Instead of waiting for field teams to visit every home, families could self-report damage directly on WhatsApp — even by sending voice notes.
People shared:
- Broken roofs
- Flooded homes
- Lost crops
- Lack of medicines
- Blocked roads
For many, this was the first time they had a simple way to ask for help in their own voice.
Community voice
A respondent’s voice note reporting damage to agricultural crops due to flooding.
A respondent’s voice note reporting impact on Livelihood and the lack of basic necessities reported due to floods.
The impact was remarkable:
- Relief distribution time reduced by 90%+ in the latest pilot
- Reporting rates jumped from 14% to over 90% in the last pilot
- Verification became faster through local volunteers
- WhatsApp was the most Preferred Mode: 62% of total households reported using WhatsApp
- Inclusivity: The platform ensured inclusion, even for individuals without access to smartphones or with lower literacy levels
SEEDS showed that in disaster zones, WhatsApp is not just a communication tool — it becomes emergency infrastructure.
Story 2: Farmers for Forests — Turning 80 Daily Calls into a Seamless Farmer Onboarding System
Farmers for Forests (F4F) works with marginal farmers to promote agroforestry and connect them to the carbon credit market — a crucial livelihood buffer in a climate-stressed world.
But as interest grew, the team was overwhelmed:
80+ calls a day, mostly asking the same five questions:
“What trees will I get?”
“What is a carbon credit?”
“Why should I shift to agroforestry?”
To fix this, they launched a simple WhatsApp chatbot. A simple button based chatbot that answers users’ queries.
The image shows screenshots from their chatbot where a user registers and then gets the required information
Farmers could now learn about the program, understand carbon credits, and even begin onboarding — all through a guided WhatsApp menu in their language.
Impact
- Calls reduced from 80+ to 15–20/day
- 325+ farmers onboarded through WhatsApp
- 500+ acres added into agroforestry
- 20% of previously unanswered questions were resolved instantly
Farmers began engaging at night after fieldwork, often through audio messages — and the bot never got tired of answering.
What’s the next step for their team?
The bot is to be improvised to be an AI-powered chatbot that helps in answering specific questions related to program, carbon credit, tree growth and maintenance etc. in local language in audio.
Why These Stories Matter
Both SEEDS and F4F faced the same challenge:
Communities needed instant, dependable guidance — and teams were stretched beyond capacity.
WhatsApp chatbots helped them:
- Respond faster during crises
- Reduce manual load on staff
- Collect structured, real-time data
- Communicate in local languages
- Build long-term trust
Or as Thomas put it during the session:
“Start simple. Launch fast. Let your community show you what matters.”
And Pravin added the practitioner lens:
“Farmers prefer audio and simplicity. The bot helps us stay present even when we’re not physically there.”
A Quiet Shift Is Already Underway
From cyclone-hit households to farmers exploring agroforestry, WhatsApp is becoming a critical pillar of climate resilience. These are just simple, thoughtful workflows built on Glific.
And for climate-action NGOs, sometimes that’s all you need to make the difference between a delayed response and a timely one.
How Climate & Disaster NGOs Can Use WhatsApp Chatbots
- Rapid disaster reporting: Communities can quickly share damage, losses, and needs through simple messages or voice notes.
- Early warnings and weather updates: NGOs can instantly send cyclone, flood, heatwave, or air-quality alerts to at-risk households.
- Behaviour-change nudges: Short tips on pollution, heat safety, water conservation, and waste segregation can be delivered regularly.
- Community feedback: Beneficiaries can easily report gaps in relief, shelter conditions, or local risks.
- Volunteer coordination: Onboarding, tasks, updates, and training can be shared in one organised WhatsApp flow.
- Farmer advisories: Farmers receive weather updates, agroforestry guidance, and carbon-credit information directly on WhatsApp.
- AI helpdesks: Chatbots can answer questions from organisational documents in any language, reducing staff load.
- Monitoring & field data: Photos, GPS points and quick check-ins help teams collect real-time environmental and programme data.
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