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Due to its unique geo-morphological and ecological setting, the landscape in and around Himachal Pradesh has seen changes due to increasing human activities like tourism, and city infrastructure development in the region in the past two decades. At the same time, the state has witnessed natural hazards like earthquakes, landslides, flash floods and wildfires. It can be said with certain confidence that the current process of climate change has increased the frequency of landslides, flash floods and wildfires (Free Press Journal, 2021). Poorly planned unscientific human expansions and interventions have made the region more vulnerable to climatic disasters. Combined with ongoing climate change, human activities over higher altitudes like the construction of dams and roads for micro hydro-power plants, increase in new settlements and conversion of land use from forest to agriculture and/or change in tree species (e.g. cider to pine), have resulted in the alteration of the hydrological cycle in the form of increased run-off and depletion of natural springs (Panwar, 2021). The science of climate change and/or climate variability is a bit complex as various components of the Earth’s climate system are interacting with each other mostly in a non-linear manner involving positive/negative feedback processes (Boyce, 2009). To develop a basic understanding of the science behind climate change, a fundamental understanding of basic sciences (both natural and physical) is a prerequisite. Though global as well as national agencies like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are actively involved in raising the level of public awareness about climate change through their publications, their reach is limited to academicians and policymakers. In the mission of spreading climate awareness to the greater depths, mass-media organizations involving electronic (e.g. the National Geographic, the Discovery, the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Cable News Network etc.) as well as print media (e.g. the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Times of India, the Indian Express and the Hindu etc.) are playing a crucial role at global as well as national level. It is pertinent to mention here that the characteristics (form and magnitude) of climate change and its implications at the regional level are quite different over different parts of the world (Boykoff, 2011). Thus, the role of mass media organizations working on the regional or state level becomes crucial for disseminating awareness about climate change-related issues to the ultimate stakeholders. In comparison to big newspapers with an established sophisticated newsroom and trained journalists, the coverage of climate stories is noticeable in state editions of language newspapers, even though the profile of these stories has never been higher. In a hill state like Himachal Pradesh, the public understanding of the subject is low and journalists are no exception as they come from the same community with limited exposure to the issue. The reflection of this can be seen in the stories published in the state editions of Hindi newspapers. The opinions and views presented in these stories are mostly outdated, driven by spin or simply wrong. In state editions of Hindi language newspapers published from Himachal Pradesh, stories about climatic hazards/disasters reflected in terms of extreme temperature and extreme precipitation events are often written without a brief introduction that covers what, why and how the type of questions about a particular issue like chill or heat waves, cloud burst and flash-floods etc. Moreover, issues such as implications of climate change viz. loss of biodiversity, shift in vegetation, migration of species, loss of food security, and increase of insects/vector-borne diseases etc. hardly get any space. Many times, disastrous events like earthquakes or flash floods are covered just like a simple science/environment story. Most of the journalists working in these state editions of Hindi newspapers are graduates of arts or social sciences and are unwilling or unable to have a better understanding of science. Since, climate change nowadays encompasses the economy, health, security and more, the subject is extremely complex and easy to get wrong. The foremost challenge in covering climate change stories is the requirement for a strong grasp of the fundamentals of the climate debate. This grasp is often lacking and this has contributed to stories out of facts and false balance. The coverage of a recent event – a flash flood-like situation in Dharamshala covered by the state editions of Hindi newspapers was woefully inadequate (Nisbet, 2010). Nearly all the state editions termed the situation as a cloud-burst quoting state sources instead of consulting with qualified scientists which brought chaos and created panic among the state community. The story was quickly picked up by many national TV channels and newspapers, and the visuals of the incident quickly circulated on social media. This is one of the many examples of journalistic balance gone wrong.