
Articles by Nanditha Chandraprakash
Nanditha spent her childhood absorbed in the grasses and their insects, mud and mushrooms, and the trees and their birds. These initial unfiltered experiences and love for all life motivated her to start noting down her observations: about the beauty of nature at first, followed by the adverse issues, both small-scale and large, affecting the natural environment. She worked as an environmental writer for online platforms and wrote about Indian wildlife, researchers, biologists, NGOs, local communities, educators, etc. She simultaneously studied Environmental Law where, for her dissertation, she delved into and wrote about Indian climate change policies (and the lack of them) to protect the country’s biodiversity.
Nanditha hopes to take the stories found in new environmental discoveries, research and distresses – with all their nuances – in a relatable style to the masses. She wants to get involved through writing to reach a larger audience and spread awareness among several sections of the society about climate change, intersectionality, and threats to the biodiversity and indigenous peoples, thus influencing policymaking.
She is driven by the need to save the disappearing unique grasses, timely mushrooms, and the visiting birds of her past.


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Special series
Forest trackers
- Indigenous Cacataibo of Peru threatened by land grabbing and drug trade
- Colombian and Ecuadorian Indigenous communities live in fear as drug traffickers invade
- Cocaine production driving deforestation into Colombian national park
- Industrial agriculture threatens a wetland oasis in Bolivia

Oceans
- 2020’s top ocean news stories (commentary)
- ‘Tamper with nature, and everyone suffers’: Q&A with ecologist Enric Sala
- New paper highlights spread of organized crime from global fisheries
- Study: Chinese ‘dark fleets’ illegally defying sanctions by fishing in North Korean waters

Amazon conservation
- Indigenous groups blast Amazon state’s plan to legalize wildcat mining
- In ‘dire’ plea, Brazil’s Amazonas state appeals for global COVID assistance
- Brazil’s collapsing health service, new COVID variant, raise Indigenous risk
- Lack of protection leaves Spain-size swath of Brazilian Amazon up for grabs

Land rights and extractives
- Indigenous groups blast Amazon state’s plan to legalize wildcat mining
- Papua tribe moves to block clearing of its ancestral forest for palm oil
- Protesters hold back military takeover of Balkans’ largest mountain pasture
- Podcast: New innovations to clean up the impacts of mining

Endangered environmentalists
- Brazilian woman threatened by Amazon loggers wins global human rights award
- Indonesian fishers opposed to dredging project hit by ‘criminalization’ bid
- Life as an Amazon activist: ‘I don’t want to be the next Dorothy Stang’
- In Philippines’ Palawan, top cop linked to assault on environmental officer

Indonesias forest guardians
- Why I stand for my tribe’s forest: It gives us food, culture, and life (commentary)
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time
- Indigenous Iban community defends rainforests, but awaits lands rights recognition
