Vaishnavi Rathore has been covering land and climate for Scroll since 2022, and was previously the environment lead at The Bastion. 

In her five years of reporting, Rathore has travelled to 16 districts – across the Himalayas, the deserts of Gujarat and Rajasthan and the coast of Kerala – in pursuit of stories related to climate justice, environmental degradation and the politics of land and water.

She won the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust Award 2021 for development journalism, the Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity 2022, and the first prize in the Press Institute of India-International Committee of the Red Cross's Annual Awards 2023.

Rathore now plans to go where few reporters before her have gone: Great Nicobar Island.

Pay for The Great Nicobar Project by Scroll.in

Special project: Help us report from the ground on the Great Nicobar Project . . Nearly a million rainforest trees. A tribe with just 400 members. A nesting site of the endangered giant leatherback turtles. All this and more is threatened by the Modi government’s plan to build an alternative “Hong Kong” on the Great Nicobar Island. . . Much has been written about the government’s Rs 72,000-crore proposal to construct an international airport, a transshipment terminal, a power plant and a township on the pristine island, 1,300 km from the mainland. But there has been no ground reporting from the island.. . How will the project impact the island’s indigenous communities, the Shompens and the Nicobarese? Have they even been consulted? What will be the ecological impact of the project, which will cover nearly one-fifth of the island?. . Help Scroll’s climate and land reporter Vaishnavi Rathore get to the Great Nicobar Island to report these stories..

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Her past experience puts her in a unique position to report on the Modi government's plans to develop an "alternative Hong Kong" in Great Nicobar, at the cost of the island's pristine ecology and Adivasi communities. 

Catch up on Rahore's recent work for Scroll's Common Ground project.

How hydropower projects in Himachal sold dubious carbon credits

A recent report found that several of these projects had offset no carbon dioxide or less than the amount they were supposed to offset.

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Adani power plant will destroy more forests than projected, experts say

The site identified in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur district for the proposed project is forest land, contrary to the company’s claim, environmentalists maintain.

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Climate change is making salt harder to produce

Gujarat is India’s highest salt-producing state. But shifting, unpredictable monsoons have disrupted the livelihoods of those who produce the mineral.

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How India’s weak international stand on plastic pollution harms Indians

In negotiations, India has failed to support comprehensive solutions to the problem. Its own citizens suffer the worst health consequences of plastic pollution.

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Even Himachal’s hill stations are reeling under a heat wave

Extreme temperatures and low precipitation is hurting agriculture and causing forest fires.

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