Although there are ongoing efforts to bring nature to children through birds (Early Bird), there is far too little effort to bring birds and nature to the larger public in a variety of media, and in particular in non-English languages.

We develop strategic partnerships with mass media platforms and news organizations to spread awareness and appreciation of our collective natural heritage amongst the public. The thought is to find new avenues for India’s nature and birds experts in mass media and develop a sense of camaraderie and community around nature content that goes beyond individual organizations. The overarching result we seek from these initiatives is to inculcate a love and wonder towards nature and birds in the general public.

In this project, we actively reach out to editors in top Indian media in all languages and mediums (print and digital), pitching them a series of articles we want to develop with them. Once an editor is interested, we reach out to our community of experienced nature writers (within and outside NCF), develop the stories with them, find appropriate photographs and coordinate between our creators and the editors. We also work on topical stories for editors, liaising between the scientific community and media.

In 2020 we initiated, developed and got articles and columns published in different media platforms. Themes ranged from technologies that ecologists and wildlife researchers use, heroes of conservation, to experiential advice on how to do birdwatching from the balcony. We worked with the print edition of NavGujarat Samay (Gujarati) to do a series on Birds of Gujarat, The Hindu Tamil (Tamil) for a series on Birds of Tamil Nadu, Sambad (Odia) for a series on Birds of Odisha, Dainik Bhaskar (Hindi) for a series on Attractive Birds of India and one on Attractive Butteflies of India and Amar Ujala (Hindi) for a series of articles by star nature writers. We also initiated a series on Balcony Birding and one on Birds and Us on Amar Ujala Digital, a series on Birds of Maharashtra and one on Nature and Mental health in times of Covid19 with The Wire Marathi, on Winter Gardening with Dainik Bhaskar Digital and a series on Nature and Mental Health with NDTV Khabar. In the English media, we did a series on Nature Research and Technology, another one on Big Data and Biodiversity and on Tools for nature enthusiasts with NDTV Gadgets, a series on How the pandemic affected ecology-based research in India with Mint Lounge and on Conservation Heroes with The Better India.

This initiative is ongoing and we are constantly on the lookout for responsible editors who want to increase awareness of nature in their media. If you would like some nature content for your platform, please get in touch with us.

GUJARATI: Birds of Gujarat, Nav Gujarat Samay (Print)

Nav Gujarat Samay is a daily newspaper in Gujarati by the Times Group and it has a circulation of about 1,48,000. We pitched a series of stories on ‘Birds of Gujarat’ by nature writers of Gujarat. The stories were featured every month from Sep 2020 to July 2021. Read the published articles here.

TAMIL: Birds of Tamil Nadu, The Hindu Tamil (Print)

The Hindu Tamil Thisai is a Tamil daily newspaper that engages readers of all age groups with extensive regional, national and international news coverage. We pitched a series of stories on ‘Birds of Tamil Nadu’ by nature writers of Tamil Nadu. Read the published stories here.

MARATHI: Birds of Maharashtra, Lokmat (Print)

Lokmat is the largest Marathi language newspaper in India with more than 18 million readers published in Maharashtra state. It is one of the top Marathi newspapers in Maharashtra & Goa states. We pitched a series of stories on ‘Birds of Maharashtra’ by nature writers of Maharashtra. The stories will be featured once a month in the newspaper, as part of this ongoing series.

As part of this ongoing series, articles have been published on Monday Specials in Lokmat

ODIA: Birds of Odisha, Sambad (Print)

Sambad is Odisha’s most widely read and largest circulated Odia daily with a circulation of more than 4,00,000, published from eight centres. We pitched a series of stories on ‘Birds of Odisha’ by nature writers of Odisha. Read the published stories here.

HINDI: Attractive Birds of India, Dainik Bhaskar (Print)

Dainik Bhaskar is a Hindi daily, ranked first in terms of largest circulation in India and third, globally. We pitched a series of articles on ‘Attractive Birds of India’ by nature writers in Hindi. Read the published stories here.

HINDI: Attractive Butterflies of India, Dainik Bhaskar (Print)

Dainik Bhaskar is a Hindi daily, ranked first in terms of largest circulation in India and third, globally. We pitched a series of articles on ‘Attractive Butterflies of India’ by nature writers in Hindi. Read the published stories here.

HINDI: Articles about nature, Amar Ujala (Print)

Amar Ujala is India’s 4th largest newspaper with a total readership of 4.70 crore readers. We pitched a series of articles about nature by star nature writers, translated in Hindi. Read articles by Janaki Lenin, translated in Hindi by Atula Gupta.

HINDI: Balcony Birding, Amar Ujala (Digital)

Amar Ujala is a top ranking Hindi website amongst all Hindi publishers. As per the June Comscore Report they had 500 Mn+ page views and 65 Mn+ unique visitors. We pitched a series of stories on ‘Balcony Birding’ by nature expert writers throughout India in Hindi. We have also received a contribution for this series from Rohini Nilekani. Check out the complete series here.

HINDI: Birds and Us, Amar Ujala (Digital)

We pitched a series of articles on ‘Birds and Us’ by nature expert writers throughout India in Hindi. Check out the complete series here.

MARATHI: Birds of Maharashtra, The Wire (Marathi)

The Wire (Marathi) website has 5 lakh+ views monthly and each article gets 2K-3K views. We invited our Marathi nature writers to write stories on Birds of Maharashtra. Read published stories here.

HINDI: Nature and Mental Health, NDTV Khabar (Digital)

NDTV is, and has been for more than a quarter century, a pioneer in India’s news television and digital journalism. We invited our Hindi nature writers to write their experience of how nature helped their mental health. Read published stories here.

ENGLISH: Conservation and Technology, NDTV Gadgets (Digital)

NDTV Gadgets has an audience of 40 million monthly visitors. We pitched and developed a special series on ‘Nature Conservation and Technology’. A total of 11 articles, written by top researchers in the country were published in this.

Stories by various researchers were published in their Science Features section, under this series. A series of articles about tools for nature enthusiasts was published in 2021-22.

ENGLISH: Heroes of Conservation, The Better India (Digital)

We created a pitch and developed a series of stories on the heroes in conservation to editors at The Better India. As part of this initiative, connections were enabled between The Better India journalists and conservationists and details about conservationists who are doing exceptional on-field work were shared from the field of wildlife and conservation.

Rajasthan Man Rode Over 1,200 Km to Save Endangered Vultures & Tigers!

Bengal Woman Takes on Ritual Hunters, Rescues Over 300 Wild Animals

This Assamese Man Has Spent the Last 23 Years Saving the World’s Tiniest Pig

VARIOUS: Standalone Articles

To ensure that new research and developing trends in ecology and biodiversity reaches a new audience, we pitch news to editors, share contacts of experts, and initiate conversations about upcoming issues in ecology and conservation. For researchers, we have a ready database of media contacts that we can share to ensure article publication around different nature topics. Standalone articles are continually being published thanks to this effort.

Are you a newspaper or media platform?

Are you a publisher or a newspaper? If you need fantastic content on nature and birds for your online platform or print magazine, we can connect you to writers, photographers and multimedia creators who specialize in nature and birds appreciation. Write to jignasa@ncf-india.org for your requirements.