Coastal resilience, (mal)adaptation, and justice in Chennai

India’s central and state governments have proposed large-scale projects to promote coastal resilience. The ongoing efforts to adapt to frequent episodes of urban flooding in Chennai, the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India, have led to thousands of people being displaced from urban centres to peri-urban areas. This “relocation” of population with the ostensible goal of climate adaptation has led to adverse impacts on coastal ecology and local livelihoods. It has significantly undermined the goals of improving coastal resilience and climate justice, and constitutes a process of maladaptation. What are the root causes of the apparent contradiction between climate adaptation and climate resilience interventions promoted by national and subnational governments? Drawing on field research involving key-informant interviews and analysis of ongoing policy developments, we show that maladaptation results from a lack of democratic decision-making and a failure of accountability. We conclude that policy responses for climate resilience and adaptation are mediated by the socioeconomic and political context. Under a policy context that excludes most of the city’s residents from participating actively in the policy process, decision-makers do not pay heed to the interests and perspectives of low-income residents. Skewed policy responses are not only unjust; they are also ineffective. The “resettlement” of residents from the city’s slums into the ecologically sensitive zones in the surrounding areas, and a failure to prevent the siting of infrastructure in ecologically sensitive areas of peri-urban Chennai, have led to continued degradation of the city’s ecology. Future research must consider proposals for introducing mechanisms of accountability in climate resilience and adaptation.