- Mongabay India has been the go-to platform for a wide swathe of audiences, from a daily commuter to a policymaker to a practising wildlife conservationist.
- In 2024, we expanded our reach through partnerships with regional media, capacity building programs, and multilingual content, engaging diverse audiences across the country.
- Mongabay India earned multiple awards, including the Greenaccord International Media Award and the ‘Vasundhara Mitra’ award, while also influencing policy and fostering environmental awareness.
In 2024, Mongabay India continued to solidify its position as a trusted source of environmental journalism. This year we broadened the reach of our stories, engaging diverse groups from grassroots communities to regional policymakers.
Mongabay India is the India-specific platform of the international environment portal Mongabay, which publishes in two languages, English and Hindi. Our stories are rooted in evidence-based journalism. We explore themes that are not covered in mainstream media and use multiple formats to distil complex concepts. A combination of these factors has made Mongabay India a go-to platform for a wide swathe of audiences, from a daily commuter to a policymaker to a practising wildlife conservationist.
In 2024, the Mongabay India team produced more than 500 text and 100 video stories in English and Hindi, while building partnerships with regional language media to have these stories translated into more Indian languages. Our content has reached more than 30 million people through our websites and social media channels. Further, with multiple collaborations and innovations in editorial themes, this year, the Mongabay India team managed to reach beyond the typical readership we have been gathering since our launch in 2018.
Forging partnerships for environmental storytelling
Mongabay India was part of the Green Literature Festival 2024, which aims to mainstream environmental literature in India. As a knowledge partner, we were part of a panel discussion on environmental accuracy versus sensationalism in media reports. Managing editor S. Gopikrishna Warrier and senior editor Shailesh Shrivastava also conducted a workshop on environmental writing. Similarly, with AltEff (the All Living Things Environmental Film Festival), the team conducted a masterclass to amplify environmental filmmaking and mentored three filmmakers who produced great videos for us. These videos were screened at different venues across India as part of AltEff, encouraging interactions between filmmakers and their audiences.
This year also saw us collaborate with some mainstream regional media outlets to further amplify environmental news in different geographies and languages. The Hitavada, one of the oldest English dailies in central India compiles Mongabay India stories into a bimonthly “environmental digest” while Keraleeyam, a Malayalam magazine, has been adapting Mongabay India content and has interviewed our Managing Editor on on COP29, making the nuances of this major climate conference accessible to audiences in Malayalam.
In 2024, Mongabay India strengthened journalist capacity through workshops, masterclasses, and training sessions, equipping reporters with tools for impactful environmental storytelling. As part of ongoing collaborations, senior production editor Aditi Tandon, a trainer with the Open Climate Reporting Initiative (OCRI), trained a cohort of journalists from across South Asia on climate reporting. Senior digital editor Kartik Chandramouli, senior editor Shailesh Shrivastava and associate editor Manish Mishra anchored workshops with the Earth Journalism Network and In Old News. Saumitra Shinde, Kundan Pandey and Gopi Warrier participated in the Biennial Conference of the Indian Society for Ecological Economists (INSEE) and organised sessions on the importance of academics talking to the media.
Working with the social impact group Asar, Mongabay India collaborated with Baimanus, a Marathi media portal to work with grassroot reporters and bring out our stories in the third most spoken language in India. Through feature articles and videos we highlighted climate and gender issues impacting the most vulnerable people and carried these stories in English on Mongabay India and in Marathi on Baimanus. Asar was involved with identifying the reporters and training them on the nuances of journalism and climate change.
Exploring novel themes
This year, we pushed the boundaries within environmental journalism and focussed on telling the stories on two key topics that drive the Indian economy: indigenous knowledge systems and the role of local communities in the sustainable conservation of natural capital; and the second on climate-conscious innovations in agriculture and small industry clusters. In both cases, economic push and pull factors in the adoption of technologies, and policies available for easy adoption were examined. The series were natural extensions of one of our thematic focal points of 2023, environmental economics.
Managing editor Warrier’s podcast, “Environomy”, looked at the intersection of environment, economics and the Indian middle class over the past 30 years, since India’s economic liberalisation. The podcast broke new ground in the coverage of environment from an economics perspective in the Indian media space, thanks to Warrier’s insights borne from an environmental journalism career which gave him a ringside view.
A second podcast, “Wild Frequencies”, covered the theme of bioacoustics and its application of soundscapes in wildlife monitoring and conservation, with fascinating recordings from the field, and extensive interviews with the few researchers working in this growing field.
Our storytelling also underscored the environment’s vital connection to human and ecological systems. We told stories with intersectional themes such as the impact of climate change on sports, climate impacts on school-going children and quality of education, and did a deep dive into climate anxiety, including the mental health impacts of climate change.
While we wrote, we also read a lot this year. We had ten book reviews on multiple topics ranging from species accounts to memoirs.
Geographically, we continued to publish from all over the country: from Leh’s Climate Cup to Andaman’s mangroves and wild pigs, and from new frogs and the living root bridges in rainy northeast India to the Ram-mol method of mixed cropping in dry Kachchh in Gujarat.
Starting just before the COP29 at Baku, we explored climate finance and related concepts in our in-depth articles in English and Hindi.
Shaping policy outcomes
Mongabay India’s stories drove tangible impacts in 2024 from influencing government policy and conservation to sparking discourse on critical environmental issues.
After publishing a story on Bengaluru’s parks in May 2024, the Karnataka government ordered opening parks for longer hours, within a fortnight. The parks are a crucial and free refuge for outdoor workers to rest and recuperate during summer.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) raised concerns about the construction of proposed five-star hotels in the vicinity of Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, following an article published on Mongabay India.
The Chief Minister of Manipur took note of a story published in Mongabay-India on Manipur ponies and a meeting of government officials was conducted to address some of the points raised in the story. Shortly after the story was published, the CM announced on X, that the Manipuri ponies have been given a new home at the government allotted fields in Imphal. Similarly, the NGT also took up a suo-moto case based on this story, on Manipuri ponies.
The Government of Madhya Pradesh has expedited the process of establishing a museum in Patangarh village, Dindori district, following the publication of our story on Gond art. The story highlighted the artists’ struggles and the need to preserve the art form in its place of origin. Government officials visited the village, and the construction of the art museum is now underway.
Following a story on the declining income of forest produce collectors, particularly those engaged in gathering herbal medicines, the Madhya Pradesh government developed a plan to boost the income of these collectors, and opened entrepreneurial centres called Van Dhan Vikas Kendras across 20 districts, predominantly inhabited by Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).
Recognition for our work
In 2024, Mongabay India garnered prestigious awards and recognitions for its contributions to environmental journalism.
Mongabay India was awarded with the Greenaccord International Media Award in October for “originality and consistency in covering environmental topics” in Asia.
Kirloskar Vasundhara International Film Festival 2024 honoured Mongabay India with the ‘Vasundhara Mitra (Organisation)’ award for its work in environmental filmmaking.
Our contributors Barasha Das and Surajit Sharma won the Best Film award at the ‘Green Frames: VATAVARAN Short Film Competition and Festival 2023’ for their Mongabay India story on Ruza, a unique agriculture practice in Nagaland.
Banner image: Painted storks are the only water birds that nest with pelicans in this village. Image by Abhishek N. Chinnappa for Mongabay.
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