reports
Vice World News : The Illegal Diamonds of Panna
Since the 16th century, Panna, located in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, has been a region geologically gifted with extensive diamond deposits. It is home to the oldest and biggest government owned diamond mine in the country. More recently, it has been estimated that at least 700 clandestine mines operate outside government regulation. Complementing these riches, or, perhaps complicating them, is the Panna Tiger Reserve - a tract of over 500 square kilometers established as a protected area for tigers.
I traveled to Panna to meet with officials and illegal diamond miners to navigate the complex interwoven interests that these mining operations imply, what it means for the people of Panna, and how it impacts the tiger reserve and its future conservation efforts.
Vice News Tonight : Why Rural India Can’t Keep Track of COVID Deaths
The severity of the turmoil caused by the Delta variant of Covid-19 can seem incomprehensible from a distance. In the face of deliberate underreporting of official deaths, the numbers simply did not, and could not, indicate the true scale of the tragedy that unfolded throughout India. Cities were gripped with an oxygen shortage, and in rural India, families were being left to their own devices to cope with medical emergencies. Meanwhile, the government was ominously downplaying their lack of preparedness.
In this Emmy nominated report, I dove deep into rural Haryana and Uttar Pradesh - two northern states of India that were profoundly affected by the crisis - to discover and document how this tragedy could have happened, why it did, and its overall scale.
BBC : Life at 50C - Using Ice to Battle India’s Heat
An air temperature of 50 degrees celsius is difficult for most of us to fathom. The air around you seems to hum, with most people either confined to spending daylight hours indoors, or, to slowly engage with others outside in a sort of viscous miasma of vision warping gas. The distinction and decision to venture outside and brave the heat, however, is often not a matter of choice.
Life at 50C is a groundbreaking exploration into the impact of climate change and high temperatures as told by the people who live on the fiery frontline. In India, this film that I directed and shot - explores this new reality through three protagonists, all of whom have developed simple solutions to fight the dire conditions they are faced with.
Vice World News : Breaking Bones to Grow Taller
The desire to change one's appearance is universal, bound by what resources are accessible, and sometimes, how society responds to such aspirations. Mukesh is a 42 year old man from Nagpur, in the Indian state of Maharashtra. He has longed to be taller for as long as he can recall. To achieve his dream, he will undergo an operation that will break his bones and foster the formation of new tissue, ultimately leading to an increase in his overall height.
The technique - known as the Ilizarov method - requires highly trained specialists, and is not without risks. I explored the contours of what made Mukesh and others want to undertake this long and complicated process for a new Vice World Series - Deadly Beauty.
Al Jazeera : India’s COVID Warriors
Even as Covid-19 continued to wreak a deadly path across India, front line workers showed up for work each day. Often, they were faced with a decision that few of us will ever have to make: to put oneself directly in harm’s way so they could save others, or to stay at home, and stay safe.
This report follows front line heroes for an entire year, gaining unprecedented access to the core of the crisis at its apex, both during the first and second wave. We embedded ourselves in New Delhi’s busiest hospitals, with citizen volunteers and gravediggers. All of whom continued their work, unabated, to fight a war with the barest of materiel at their disposal.
This story for the multi award-winning TV program, 101 East, was also nominated for a One World Media Award in 2022.
France24 Exclusive Report : Lockdown in Kashmir
On August 5th, 2019, Kashmiri citizens were thrust into an unclear future - wondering why they were suddenly cut off from communicating with the world, why their politicians were being jailed, and why there was a surge in army presence surrounding them. This story begins there, documenting the challenges that unfolded in the days after the government of India revoked Kashmir’s special status.
International journalists were not allowed in, and if they were in, reporting was another level of complexity. In the midst of 24 hour curfews, curtailed communication lines, and an overwhelming sense of uncertainty, my report documents the first week of crisis in the world’s most militarized zone.
It was the first medium format TV report that came out of the region, and received extensive viewership on all platforms in India and abroad.
Canal+ : Taboo Blood
India and Nepal have a complex relationship with menstruation. Women have lost their lives as a result of not being able to live within their own homes, subject to the vagaries of weather, animal attacks, and other situations that directly put their lives at risk. While there have been concerted efforts to change such archaic attitudes, sadly, they have also been met with resistance. Many women continue to remain ostracized from their families and community over the course of their menstrual cycle.
In this piece, our team traveled to India and Nepal and met women subject to these practices, as well as activists, to explore how they both navigated these restrictions, why they exist, and what is the potential for change.
Canal+ : Sex and the Campus
The term “rape culture” has iterated in meaning, depth, and context since the 1960s, perhaps most pointedly in recent memory, by the #MeToo movement. Much of the impetus for the rethinking and realignment of the term can be traced to American university campuses.
This report was made on the heels of the 2015 Stanford rape case, that put these questions front and center to a public once again. I aimed to understand and present contemporary attitudes around the topic by immersing myself as a reporter in college protests, student body programs, and fraternity parties. I explored how students were organizing to make the campus “safer” - if that was working - and how new technology could once again redefine sexual consent.
France24 Reporters : The Ultimate Battleground State
In US elections, the state of Florida wields a unique predictive power in swaying presidential seats. The empirics don't lie: in the too close to call elections of 1876 and 2000, it was Florida that handed Presidential victory to the candidate it chose.
Possessing the most electoral votes of any battleground state, Florida has historically presented a 50/50 split amongst party lines. But in recent times, this bifurcation has become less symmetrical - and more worthy of attention - given the volatility and polarity of contemporary US political narratives.
My report extensively explores how and why these trends have emerged in the Sunshine State, and what it means to live - and vote - in a battleground state.
Canal+ : The Kung Fu Nuns of Nepal
Nepal predominantly exists in the global imagination along the gradient of one slope: the towering glory and majesty of the Himalayas. Less explored are the unique cultures that call these heights their home.
The Druk Amitabha Mountain Nunnery in Kathmandu, is home to over 300 Tibetan Buddhist nuns. The journey their faith has mapped for them may have begun over thousands of years ago, but these nuns are changing up the order (quite literally). Redefining their own feminism, the nuns of D.A.M. are carving a life distinct from a majority male monkhood. And they deploy martial arts as a toolkit to further manifest an axiom to independent life.
In this report, we tell the story of why they have chosen this path, how they distinguish themselves from their predecessors, and what their practice and devotion to the art of deftly controlled but deadly strength and skill really implies.
France24 : The Interview - Walid Phares
As a Lebanese-born American scholar and conservative political pundit, Walid Phares' career has spanned both the 2012 Romney and 2016 Trump campaigns as advisor, a news commentator for both Fox and NBC, and teaching at a university level. Gifted with eloquence and clear acumen, his work and voice has been equally respected by many as well as vilified by others for being prone to fear mongering.
We interviewed Phares during his role as Trump’s foreign policy advisor, the only team to do so over the course of the 2016 presidential election campaign.
France24 Focus : The Widening Gulf in US Politics
The 2018 US Midterm Elections saw the highest voter turnout in 100 years. It was not without context. The era of Trump's leadership oversaw a particularly divisive political climate, spanning polarizing views on Medicaid, LGBTQ+ rights, cannabis legalization, but most of all, on the candidates that represented each party.
In the midst of this tumult, and the sometimes carnival-like environment of American political campaigning, my report focused on the Governor race that pitted Ron DeSantis, a hardline Republican candidate and committed Trump supporter, against Andrew Gillum, a progressive Democrat. It explored the fault lines between voter choices based on how far their political pendulum swung.
France24 Focus : Stateless in India and Bangladesh
The border separating India and Bangladesh may have been forged at the sunset of British colonial rule, but it always remained somewhat porous. Spanning over 4000 kilometers, this inherently complex, winding line on a map suddenly found new temerity in 2015, when the governments of both nations decided to present those stateless and in between nations, a final diktat - you are either Indian or Bangladeshi, and if you are on the wrong side of the border, you are alone.
For this report, I embedded myself with an entire village being uprooted from their seventy year legacy on the basis of them being made to choose sides. In selecting Indian citizenship, this village discovered what it was like to be welcomed to a foreign land they would now call their own.
France24 Bhutan : Is the Happiness Index a Myth?
Happiness is vague, often elusive, and arguably, beyond the realm of a metric. Bhutan, however, would happily disagree with the latter. Since 1972, the tiny landlocked Himalayan nation has championed their take on measuring human welfare with aplomb, claiming their nation as the “happiest on earth”, with the fourth king stating that “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product.”
The reality however is less ecstatic. While relatively prosperous amongst her South Asian peers, the country remains primarily reliant on agriculture, vulnerable to both natural disasters and climate-related risks. For this report, I traveled to the capital city of Thimpu and its surrounding rural areas to engage with those across the socioeconomic spectrum in order to understand how the Global Happiness Index interfaces with mental health challenges, alcoholism, and high rates of unemployment.
France24 India : Rising Intolerance in India
As the rise of the right in India continues seemingly unabated, the BJP led government has been accused of pushing a Hindu ideology on educational institutions. The nation’s artists and intellectuals have responded, only to be subjected to increasing levels of monitoring, surveillance, and violent crackdowns. A situation that has been given less attention than one might expect.
Student resistance has long been a marker for change in societies under duress, and India is no different. I report on the nation's longest student resistance since independence: a protest that further set off nationwide campaigns which included some of the most respected and well known intellectuals, artists and filmmakers, who came together to amplify the dangers that the rising climate of intolerance in India presents.
France24 Nepal : The immediate aftermath of Nepal's earthquake
The April 2015 Nepal earthquake took the lives of almost 9,000 people, destroying entire villages and UNESCO world heritage sites spanning centuries. It left thousands of Nepalis homeless and deprived of a means to secure a livelihood. Given the complex terrain and minimal infrastructure, rescue efforts also suffered massive delays.
This was the last report from over three weeks of intensive coverage of the disaster, captured by the France24 team immediately after the quake. Based in Kathmandu, we reported extensively across the country to track relief efforts in the face of little to no prior infrastructure, and how these distressing ground realities were compounded by the overwhelming levels of corruption. We presented stories of unwavering dignity in the face of the profound loss faced by those whose lives had been forever altered, seemingly overnight.
France24 Bangladesh : Bloggers and Journalists fatally targeted
Historically, Bangladesh has presented a relative scale of tolerance despite being carved out of the Indian subcontinent on the inherently divisive basis of a religious belief. But between 2014 and 2015, the country bore witness to a worrying surge of attacks against individuals expressing secular views. Authorities deployed unusually violent and often illegal means to silence dissent, and obfuscated accountability to the global community.
Though certain terrorist groups would ultimately claim responsibility for these acts, the reality on the ground exposed a nexus of political rivalries and vested interests. My report unpacked the complexities of what really underpinned this dark chapter in Bangladesh’s history.
France24 Reporters : India’s Coal Addiction
In 2016, India ratified the Paris Global Climate Agreement, a binding international treaty on climate change with over 190 signatories. A framework to limit global warming to below two degrees celsius was set up, but remained ambiguous in how different countries at different stages in their development trajectory will achieve that.
Even though India has committed itself to renewable energy, it’s dependence on coal has risen over 700% over the past forty years alone. The country is the world's second largest producer of this fossil fuel, second only to China. Given the commitments in Paris, this raises questions as to how India will establish a clear path forward and do so in a way that makes sense for the country’s growing economy, and the corresponding demand for energy.
Our report raises these questions and issues, and explores how and who would be impacted if India’s coal policy changes.
France24 Reporters : The Myth of Love Jihad
The term “love jihad” entered the subcontinental lexicon in 2009 off the back of a sort of conspiratorial suggestion: Muslim men were marrying Hindu women as a strategy to convert them to Islam. Fueled by Hindutva supporters, the sentiment gained significant traction - arguably playing a role in BJP’s 2014 rise to power in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh - home to 200 million people.
Those who identify as Muslim in India find the allegations somewhere between absurd and deeply concerning - given the stakes of faith based identity politics in contemporary India. We traveled to multiple states to better understand how ‘Love Jihad’ was being used as a populist vote bank tool, and at what point a myth can potentially spill over into reality for all the wrong reasons.
France24 Reporters : Indian Christians forced to pray in secret
In the increasingly divisive battleground that characterizes how India grapples with a 21st century secular identity, much attention has been placed on the Muslim minority. What often gets overlooked in the global imagination is how Christianity factors into this arena of conflict. Though records indicate Christianity being practiced in India since the 1st century - the sheer scale of that history has been challenged by a series of violent acts that seek to belittle this religious minority’s existence.
Against the background of a surge of church burnings, physical attacks, and mass scale property damage, our report sought out urban and rural Christians to uncover how they were grappling with increasing intolerance within populist political sentiment, and how this was affecting their lives.