Current editorial priorities

Mongabay India is an environment and conservation news platform that aims to bring high quality, original reports from nature’s frontline in India. It is the India-specific portal of the global news platform mongabay.com. We publish in English and Hindi.

In addition to our staff members, we have a wide network of contributors writing for us and we regularly seek pitches for news articles, features and in-depth reporting.

The mission of Mongabay India is to raise interest in environment and conservation in India. We are a nonprofit news organization, dedicated to evidence-driven objective journalism. Your submission has the best chance of being accepted if it follows this philosophy and is well-written, unbiased and accurate.

Before you pitch, please go through our website and read what kind of stories and subject areas we cover. Our main beats are India’s wildlife, natural habitats, biodiversity, people and environment linkages and the conservation sector. We also undertake special reporting projects, which are deep dives on specific topics and geographies.

You will be informed if the pitch is approved or rejected by the commissioning editor. Due to the volume of pitches, we will not be able to provide detailed feedback on pitches that are rejected. While we attempt to respond within a couple of days, please give up to three weeks to respond to your pitch.

Our commissioning rate for first-time contributors, usually, is $100. The rate for further stories will be either $100 or $200 depending on the story and is decided at the time of commissioning.

We occasionally publish contributed commentaries and opinion pieces. We do not always pay for op-eds unless they are specifically commissioned by us.

How to submit your story pitch

To send Mongabay-India a pitch, please be prepared to also share your resume/portfolio along with three samples of your work. The story pitch should be roughly 500 words in length and clearly explain what you propose to write about, and describe potential sources. If you are proposing a story that is led by video, please indicate that and include a short description of your video idea. 

If you are a first-time contributor for Mongabay-India, you will need to complete our onboarding process before we can publish your work or process payment. Our operations team will contact you to sign an agreement and establish payment processes — please complete and return these forms promptly.

Pitches will be considered on a rolling basis.  Incoming pitches will be responded to within 3 weeks and often within a few days.

The guidelines on what contributors should include in their pitch is located here under the [Pitching Instructions] section.

Please use one of the following forms so that the information is directed to the most appropriate editors: