grantees » Srinivas Ganjivarapu

Srinivas is a social activist and journalist focusing on environmental and developmental issues around the Eastern Ghats. From humble beginnings as a journalist from his rural area, Srinivas quickly became a prominent investigative reporter. He works to improve the situation of adivasi (tribal) communities and their natural environment. He does not let difficult situations or political pressure stop him, and has even travelled underground for days at a time in order to accurately report stories about insurgents. He previously worked with Samata NGO and the widely-circulated Dhimsa monthly magazine. Today Srinivas is the Advocacy Coordinator at the Kovel Foundation. His actions have gone beyond investigative journalism and also embrace community advocacy efforts in tribal communities, including actively monitoring development projects and lobbying to ensure support for adivasi communities in Andhra Pradesh.  He has received many notable awards and participated in prestigious programmes, including the United States International Visitor Exchange Programme in 2013.

With the help of the JWH Initiative grant, Srinivas completed an internship and trainings with several NGOs to deepen his knowledge of environmental issues affecting India. He began with training on Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA). He says, “The training was useful for me to find out faults in the EIAs prepared by consultants, revealing the EIA loopholes for the media and to learn how to help local communities to raise their voice based on our respective findings.” He also completed training on environmental laws and their implementation at the field level, including the various processes involved in advocacy. Throughout his studies, Srinivas conducted numerous field visits, improving his knowledge on the environmental issues surrounding mining sites and the communications mechanisms in place between advocacy groups and communities. Srinivas is a high achiever and his work since his JWHi grant shows no intention of stopping.