In 2001, a well-documented incident of red rain occurred in the southern Indian state of Kerala, where the rain appeared blood-red. The phenomenon was initially attributed to a meteor explosion, but later analysis suggested the color came from airborne spores or algal cells. The event drew international scientific attention and sparked debate about its origins.

The Kerala red rain became a subject of Indian poetry and prose, with writers exploring its symbolic resonance as a portent of environmental change. Indian poets like A.K. Ramanujan and K. Satchidanandan have engaged with such natural anomalies to question the boundaries between the scientific and the mystical in contemporary Indian life.