Mridula Chari

Independent reporter, Mumbai

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I am an award-winning independent reporter based in Mumbai, India. I cover development, public policy, environment and human rights. I have won two Ramnath Goenka Awards for Excellence in Journalism, one Shriram Sanlam Award for Excellence in Financial Journalism, third place at the PII-ICRC awards and one special mention for the ACJ Award for Investigative Journalism for my work.

I have been a journalist for nine years. I have worked at the news website Scroll.in and the data-research organisation Land Conflict Watch. I am now a freelance reporter. I can also record audio and shoot short videos. My work has appeared in Undark, Evening Standard, Scroll.in, Times of India, Mint, Article 14 and Indiaspend.

My recent work includes a report on how research of elephant decision-making can reduce human-elephant conflict for Undark; how night schools in Mumbai help girls and women to access education for Evening Standard; an investigation of how women in Adivasi communities are affected by and fighting against climate change for Scroll.in; a longform history of hunger in India for the news website FiftyTwo; a two-part series for Article 14 that investigates land pooling schemes in Madhya Pradesh and Punjab; and an investigation of how injustice and local displacement are built into India's solar energy push for Mint.

Recent work

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

Awards

This is a selection of articles for which I have won awards. You can see the full list on my Awards page.

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.

Contact Me

You can email me at mridula.chari@gmail.com

My DMs are open on Twitter @mridulasee