I am an independent journalist based in Siliguri in Darjeeling district. I contribute as India correspondent for Reporters Sans Frontiers (Reporters Without Borders).
I write on politics, culture, media, social justice and environment, among other issues concerning India and its neighbours. My bylines have appeared in Scroll.in, Mint Lounge, Forbes India, The Hindu, Himal Southasian, The Fountain Ink, Yahoo!Originals, Nikkei Asian Review, The New York Times (India Ink blog), The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, World Politics Review and The Diplomat, among others.
I have previously worked with The Telegraph and The Economic Times. I was a Reuters Fellow at University of Oxford, 2012-2013 and International Journalists’ Programme fellow to Germany in 2010.
I won the Laadli Media and Advertising Award for Gender Sensitivity 2020 for my longform piece on the plight of women in closed tea gardens of north Bengal.
Mother. Wife. Sister.
I tweet @NuraRadha.
(From the archives: An edited version of this story was translated into French and published in the now-defunct magazine Asies in 2011.) Pokhara & Kathmandu (Nepal): Offering a spectacular panorama of the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri mountain ranges, Pokhara airport can surely make into the list of the world’s most beautiful airports. Situated in one end…
Read more Of Four Rivers & Six Ranges: Khampa Warriors Recount Their Stories
I only remember snatches of the conversation. “Bora ma baandheko” – Tied inside a sack – our neighbour relayed what she had heard from somewhere else. I remember the expression of fear and disgust on her face and her hand gestures as she showed how the victim’s breasts had been sliced off. That was all I…
Read more A wave of bold new books on the Gorkhaland agitation
Giridih (Jharkhand): It was an unusually cold December night and the waxing moon shone faintly over Bandhabad, a village 15 km from the district headquarters of Giridih in eastern Jharkhand. Shanti Devi finally managed to sleep, her 10-year-old granddaughter Neetu by her side, their feet warm at last in each other’s company. Suddenly, a frantic…
“Mann ko kura man mai chha,” said Prem Kumari Lama, 62, in between selling lollipops to a toddler at her stall near Darjeeling’s Mirik Lake. “I’m holding my cards close to my chest.” At no cost will Prem Kumari drop any hints as to who she will be voting for in the assembly election. “Nobody…
Read more Relegated to a supporting role, will the TMC catamaran sink or sail in Darjeeling?
The news came as a surprise to Jyoti Weststrate even though she had been waiting for it for as long as she could remember. “I wasn’t expecting the Dutch government to go that far,” says Jyoti, 37, speaking from her home in Deventer in the Netherlands. On February 8, the Netherlands announced a total freeze…
Siliguri: She was 14 when her private tutor allegedly sexually assaulted her. He told her that it was her shame, that she was a bad girl, and that no one would believe her. She kept quiet. Growing up in a middle-class family, she believed its honour rested on her shoulders, and that she should not…
Read more How One Woman Broke The Silence Around Child Sexual Abuse In India
Shubhendu Sharma founded Afforrest after being inspired by a speech by botanist Akira Miyawaki in Bangalore. (Photo by Anuradha Sharma) BANGALORE — Close by a diesel locomotive shed at Krishnarajapura in eastern Bangalore, a dense forest of 2,000 trees is growing Huddled together in just 600 sq. meters, the 10-month-old trees have an average…
Late night, sometime in the hours before dawn, Rajen Lama* of Kurseong, a town in the West Bengal’s mountainous Darjeeling district, drives down to Siliguri, about 35 km away in the foothills. The first thing he buys when the shops open is formula milk. Next, he picks up some vegetables and rations for his family…
Read more Food shortages intensify in Darjeeling hills but the statehood movement remains strong
Bangalore’s Graviky Labs develops tool to capture soot for recycling. BANGALORE — At a cafe in the Bangalore’s central district, artist Pavithra Chowdappa doodles on canvas with a marker labeled AIR-INK. “This is a special marker,” she says, making black strokes across the white surface. “It’s the only environmentally friendly ink around. And it’s so…
Read more Indian startup turns air pollutants into ink for art
Anuradha Sharma 