Mridula Chari

home • 25th April 2026

Government Company Dispossesses Landowners For Coal Mine Set to Close In 8 Years, With Least Possible Compensation

A quarter of the town of Singrauli, in Madhya Pradesh, is set to be displaced by a mine that will be exhausted in less than eight years, run by Northern Coalfields. The government-run company slashed rehabilitation and resettlement costs by using reduced land rates set by the Congress state government and a resurvey to identify people who had unduly sought compensation, thereby reducing payments to bonafide residents by 20%.

Article 14 • 24th March 2026

The Transgender Bill Doesn’t Amend Rights, It Erases Us

Since Virendra Kumar, the union minister of social justice and empowerment, introduced the amendment to the Transgender Persons Act, many trans, non-binary, and intersex people have been gripped by anxiety about what lies ahead. The proposed changes threaten to roll back rights recognised under NALSA v. Union of India by sharply narrowing the definition of who counts as transgender, excluding several identities.

BehanBox • 20th March 2026

New Transgender Bill Will Have Us Believe A Whole, Vibrant Community Does Not Exist

In as much as anyone cis is interested in trans lives, there is an established narrative that we all know – we are trans from the time we are young. My closet, however, didn’t have hinges – it was a revolving door that swept me in and out as I tried to articulate the confusion I felt about being different.

Mridula Chari • 15th March 2026

Statement on the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026 - Mridula Chari

I am a journalist. I am non-binary. I am transgender.

The Hindu • 12th March 2026

Groups to prevent human-elephant conflict linked to more elephant deaths

A long-standing intervention by the Assam government to reduce crop depredation by elephants in its forest regions, piloted and designed by environmental non-government organisation World Wildlife Fund (WWF), is actually associated with more accidental elephant deaths, a study in Conservation Biology has reported.

New Lines Magazine • 11th June 2025

Inside India’s Greenwashing Eco Parks

Projects to restore mining areas are being sold as part of a ‘just transition’ away from coal, but mask the pollution damaging locals’ lives

Frontline • 26th March 2025

Despite the FRA, Forest Departments Still Control Forests, Not Forest-Dwellers: C.R. Bijoy on FRA’S Challenges

On April 2, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case that brings to the forefront a long-standing dispute between conservationists, who argue that forests should be reserved for wildlife, and human rights activists, who advocate for the rights of people to live in forest areas. The case challenges the very constitutionality of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA), which u...

Newslaundry • 14th December 2023

As COP28 debates phrasing on fossil fuels, a snapshot of life near India’s coal mines

India eventually agreed to ‘phase down’ – not ‘phase out’ – fossil fuel. But how will this impact residents of Medhauli?

Article 14 • 29th September 2023

Modi’s G20 Push For Green Credit Scheme Wants Private Plantations To Replace Forests, Rejected By His Own Experts

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing a vaguely worded programme—first proposed 15 years ago when he was Gujarat chief minister—that encourages the replacement of government and community-governed forests by private plantations as part of India’s climate-change commitments. Over five years, the idea of such private run plantations has been opposed at least three times by one of his own ministries and by a Supreme Court committee. In June, the environment ministry suddenly cut short mandatory public consultation, and in September Modi urged G20 nations that his green credits plan be considered globally.

Undark Magazine • 8th May 2023

In India, A Nuanced View of How Elephants Make Decisions

Experts say that understanding how the giant mammals weigh risk and reward could help prevent clashes with people.

Evening Standard • 20th March 2023

India’s night schools give women a second chance at education

Juggling work and school is often too much for the poorest women and girls in India. Mumbai’s night schools offer a lifeline for those hoping to change their futures.

Scroll.in • 14th September 2022

The cost of Telangana’s drive to plant two billion trees

The state’s massive afforestation programme has seen impressive results. But many cultivators have been evicted from lands they used for decades.

Scroll.in • 1st June 2022

Battered by climate change, Central India’s forest products are disappearing

They are crucial to millions of people and a vast Rs 2 lakh crore economy. But with unpredictable rains and extreme temperatures, their yields are falling.

Fifty Two (52) • 17th June 2021

Famished

On 19 March 2021, Parshottam Rupala, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, gave Parliament an impromptu lesson in Indian tradition. “There is a tradition in our villages of feeding sheera to stray female dogs after they give birth,” he said in a charged statement in the Rajya Sabha. “In a country with such a tradition, we should not pay attention to some outsider who comes and tells us that our children are hungry.”

Article 14 • 2nd March 2021

Rich, Upper-Caste Land Owners Will Benefit Most In MP Land Scheme — Article 14

Started by the Congress, continued by the BJP, a government scheme promises equal benefits to those who give up land for an industrial area. Our investigation found poor owners bearing the greatest risk, landless and tenant farmers excluded and rich, upper-castes, Hindu and Muslim, most likely to profit

Article 14 • 1st March 2021

Govt Land Barter Deal Dodges The Law, Benefits The Rich — Article 14

Instead of expensive, lawful compensation, about 10 states now offer farmers, landowners a shiny barter deal: Hand over your land, get a smaller plot when the area is ‘developed’. In Punjab, we investigate how developers get cheap land and owners wait years.

Mint • 21st September 2020

How solar farms fuel land conflicts

India’s solar dreams require large tracts of land. Now, rural communities are pushing back In the absence of a legal framework to resolve disputes, conflicts rage on. The problem is showing up in the govt’s bid to promote solar parks because they need large tracts of land

Scroll.in • 2nd July 2021

Land pooling strategy for the new Andhra capital could become a model for India's Smart Cities

Andhra Pradesh's experiment with voluntary land pooling could provide an alternative to forcible land acquisition.

Scroll.in • 2nd July 2021

How the government quietly scaled back its ambitious plans to reform fertiliser subsidies

A special four-part series on what went wrong with the government’s attempts to plug the leakages in India’s Rs 70,000 crore annual fertiliser subsidy.

Scroll.in • 1st June 2022

Battered by climate change, Central India’s forest products are disappearing

They are crucial to millions of people and a vast Rs 2 lakh crore economy. But with unpredictable rains and extreme temperatures, their yields are falling.

Scroll.in • 2nd July 2021

‘I was scared’: MP man says police made him sign false report saying Muslims celebrated Pakistan win

Fifteen men were arrested from Madhya Pradesh’s Burhanpur district for bursting firecrackers after India’s loss in the Champions Trophy final.