Presentation short abstract

Independent journalists in autocratic India expose environmental harm while also navigating oligopolist media space. Despite risks, their reportage on Kaziranga has halted destructive projects, repositioning them as key conservation actors who bring state accountability and mobilize resistance.

Presentation long abstract

Independent journalists in India are (re)emerging as crucial actors in biodiversity conservation amid growing authoritarianism and corporate capture of the media. Under the current autocratic regime, environmental regulations have been diluted to facilitate extractivism, aided by corporate political funding. The government presents the corporatized economy as ‘development’, and dissenters who challenge this face coercion. Parallelly, the shift in mass media ownership, i.e., consolidated by few corporations, the space for critical journalism has shrunk. This vacuum is now occupied by independent media houses and journalists, making them critical for maintaining accountability in the conservation sector.

This on-going research examines how journalists take on the role of environmental defenders within authoritarian regimes and oligopolistic media economies. Using the case study of Kaziranga National Park, Assam, the study examines the journalistic challenges when they depart from the state narrative of the Park’s success and question the militaristic protection and racial-capitalist model of conservation. Critical reportage from the landscape has mobilized public dissent and halted corporate projects that violate environmental norms and human-rights, such as the proposed construction of a five-star hotel on tribal land and an elephant corridor.

By inquiring why journalists and independent media houses choose to report despite political risk, this work explores the motivations of journalists for participating in conservation. This study argues that the fluid identity and skills of journalists repositions them as important conservation actors whose intervention through various forms of reportage shapes larger conservation activism that shapes public dissent, questions state-corporate nexus and forces accountability.