The global climate is getting warmer. Malaria is increasing world-wide. Many parts of the world are experiencing malaria epidemics with increasing frequency while other areas are experiencing malaria epidemics where there was no malaria before. These epidemics may now be occurring because of climatic changes causing the life cycle and distribution of the parasites and vectors involved in malaria transmission to change and make some areas more favorable and other areas less favorable to malaria transmission. Although we know that changes in temperature, rainfall and humidity will affect malaria transmission through a variety of pathways, it is now possible to start investigating if that is currently happening. Many studies have been done showing that increasing temperatures in Africa have caused malaria epidemics in highland areas, and other studies have linked El Niño events to increased rainfall and increased malaria instances in different areas of the world. My thesis is going to look specifically at climatic trends and malaria trends in India to see if there are any correlations between climatic variables and malaria rates. I will be doing statistical and GIS analyses of data in order to identify areas with such correlations. I will also take into account many different confounding factors that could cause increases in malaria besides climatic variables.

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