Swati Thiyagarajan
Environmental Journalist
Swati is one of India’s best known environment journalists. She was the environment editor at NDTV for a decade and her show Born Wild is the longest running wildlife and conservation show on a news channel of which she is presenter, researcher and script writer. She has been awarded the Ramnath Goenka Award, for best environment reporter, twice and the Sanctuary Asia Wind Under the Wings Award. She is also a Carl Zeiss awardee for her reporting on tiger conservation.
Her solo outing as a filmmaker led to her making The Animal Communicator, which is available on Amazon Prime in the US. Swati spends her time between India and South Africa and authored a book, Born Wild: Journeys into the heart of India and Africa. Her main interest is in exploring shared spaces between humans and animals, and believes that greater co-existence in the coming years will be the only way to save the wild.
Stories By Swati Thiyagarajan
Home is Everywhere, Everywhere is Home
I watched the mountainside writhe in orange. Stark against the deepening sky, the dance of fire looked deadly and unavoidable. Heroic efforts by helicopters and firefighters wrestled the great beast down, only for it to start ravening on the next range a few miles over. This deadly waltz of fire and firefighters continued for ten days in the fag-end of 2023. Thankfully, there was no loss of human life or property.
The Sunken Stories and Ancient Wisdom of the Great African Seaforest
When we originally formed SCP it was a way for us to produce the occasional creative project while immersing ourselves in the kelp forests which we named the Great African Seaforest. As a group we realised that by giving our kelp forests a name we were giving it an unique identity and a presence that connected it to the kelp forests of the world, but also distinguished it as a particular ecosystem found on the shores of Southern Africa.
No Animal Should be Mass-farmed
The debate around the proposed octopus farm goes beyond the arguments of sentience. Read our full statement.
Oceans of Fantasy, Oceans of Reality
When I was a young girl, there was a Boney M song that I loved. The song was called “Oceans of Fantasy”. It spoke of
An Otter, the Wild and Coming Change
Befriending a wild otter, nature and wilderness connection during lockdown, and hope for the future of our environment.
Stepping into Nature’s Matrix
We are nature. Biodiversity can be seen as the immune system of the planet, making its loss our greatest crisis that exacerbates climate change.
My Octopus Teacher and Me
Craig Foster’s wife speaks about the octopus teacher, learning to swim, and eventually free diving herself.
The Making of My Octopus Teacher
The making of Academy Award winning documentary, My Octopus Teacher by Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed & Craig Foster.