So long, 2010; it’s been nice knowing ya…
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under ecuador, india, thailand, united kingdom, united states
Well, hello there 2011. You’ve got a hell of a lot to live up to.
As most people know, I started my whirlwind trip in late summer of 2009 and things haven’t really gone bad yet.
I started 2010 in the remote paradise of the Andaman Islands, far off India’s coast. I had just learned to dive and fell in love with the sport. Fish are friends, not food. Continue reading this entry » » »
Tags: christmas, conservation, delhi, ecuador, friends, galapagos, graduate school, india, journalism, ocean, party, scuba diving, shenanigans, sikkim, thailand, tourism, united kingdom, united states, year-in-review
Published: What lies beneath… India’s nascent dive industry?
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Vibrant waters, ripe for conservation or destruction
My latest reporting: a magazine-style, travelogue/environmental essay published by my favorite Indian magazine, Caravan.
The piece focuses on my various experiences diving in India and asks in general whether the Indian government, environmental movement and people are in a position to conserve or consume this great underwater natural resource.
Many thanks to Dave, my editor, who gave me leeway to experiment in form and content. And to think it all started with a giddy, roof-top conversation over small cups of tea.
Tags: andaman and nicobar, conservation, environment, fishing, islands, journalism, ocean, photography, published, scuba diving, tourism
Published: Darjeeling hills of tea ready to boil?
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Face
I spent time in Darjeeling at the end of May reporting a political magazine story on the tension in the Gorkha movement after the leader of a smaller separatist party was killed in daylight near a crowded market. That story was published this month in a Delhi magazine and is available online now. The full-text version is also available here.
The photo above is from a massive political rally in Darjeeling the weekend I was there.
Tags: bimal gurung, darjeeling, gorkha, gorkha janmukti morcha, gorkhaland, india, journalism, madan tamang, photography, politics, published
Madagascar’s rare, unheralded flora
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under madagascar
Last fall, I was in Madagascar and toured a forest preserve that protects a rare tree, call the sohisika. Above is an unpublished photo gallery form the trip, with botanists from the Missouri Botanical Garden, which runs the preserve.
(I know this is a flashback to the fall, but better late than never.)
Tags: conservation, culture, environment, journalism, madagascar, Schizolaena tampoketsana, sohisika, village
Published: Mining giant bills itself as eco-friendly?
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under madagascar
My reporting from Madagascar last fall has finally been published. Globalpost.com picked up the story of the Rio Tinto mine that claims to be environmentally friendly.
The company has laid out an ambitious — some say impossible — environmental agenda in exchange for the rights to mine strips of coastal land for titanium
The Web site ran one of my photos as well. You can also see my entire gallery here.
Critics of the mine say its attempts at conservation and community development are little more than window dressing to procure mining rights. Indeed, the mine does have a lot of work yet to do, but it does have some NGOs on its side; time will tell, I suppose.
Tags: economy, environment, ft dauphin, journalism, madagascar, mining, photography, published, rio tinto, titanium
Still have a few (million) newspaper readers over here…
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Read, please!
India is a few years behind the digital revolution that has crippled U.S. newspapers. The paper is still one of the primary news sources for millions of people too poor and/or not savvy enough to use the Internet. Even TVs remain rare.
That will change inevitably, especially considering the boom in mobile technology here. Too, India’s literacy rates — particularly in the rural sector where most of the country still lives — favor a future involving more multimedia forms of news like streaming audio and cell phone news packages.
Tags: bhuriakop, india, journalism, kids, newspapers, photography, school, sikkim, teaching, volunteering
Hunting for fish
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
The all important fish finder
Working on a diving story and feeling nostalgic. Here’s a shot from my exploration diving trip through Pondicherry. In the middle is the Garmin sounder that helps us choose where to dive. Out of five dives, three came up mostly empty.
But it was still a hell of a trip, diving waters no one has ever dived before.
Tags: garmin fish finder, india, journalism, ocean, photography, pondicherry, scuba diving, shenanigans
Wearing red in Bangkok
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under thailand
Not much for Red Shirts to do, except sell red shirts
My only day in Bangkok a few weeks ago, I wandered the streets and, in particular, the Red Shirt protest zone. The protests are making the news more frequently as the political situation worsens and violence breaks out.
I can’t pretend to sort out the full politics, but the tension includes a healthy dose of class struggle. The Red Shirts, the protesters that are camped in the Thai capital, are mostly poor villagers with nothing better to do, led by a populist leader. They accuse the other side — the Yellow Shirts — and the current government of being morally bankrupt and only focused on urban wealth.
I should also note that it’s generally accepted, if not publicly agreed to, that there’s corruption on both sides of the political-cum-violent struggle.
Tempers are clearly rising now, but the one day I was there, things were peaceful. Aside from a bit of rallying which I stayed away from, the Red Shirts mostly were hanging out as above and below. Police were on guard, but seemed half-asleep at their posts when I spoke to them briefly. Continue reading this entry » » »
Tags: bangkok, journalism, photography, politics, protest, red shirt, red shirts, street, thailand
Published: Andaman adventures
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under india
Oldie but a goodie
This morning, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published a travelogue from my time in the Andamans where I became obsessed with scuba diving.
Just reading the story again makes me want to be back diving.
Perfect excuse for the scuba/clownfish photo above.
Tags: andaman and nicobar, anemone, anemonefish, fish, havelock, india, journalism, North Indian Anemonefish, ocean, published, scuba diving
Published: Maasai turn to tourism in face of drought
Posted by Adam Jadhav | Filed under kenya
Freelancing has been slow going. I have several stories finished still with no takers.
But in the April issue of the Caravan, a political and cultural journal in Delhi, you can find my story from Kenya about drought hitting pastoralists near the famous Maasai Mara reserve. It also features one of my best photos from my days down by the Mara.
You can read the whole story here or see the PDF version here. And the audio slideshow of my photos is here. Continue reading this entry » » »
Tags: drought, india, journalism, kenya, maasai, maasai mara, pastoralists, photography, published, tourism
