Sandhya Sekar never intended to lead a newsroom. Trained as an ecologist, with a Ph.D. in the sciences and a later pivot into journalism, she simply followed her curiosity—first as a writer, then as an editor, and eventually, as the founding program director of Mongabay-India. In the process, she helped create one of the country’s most credible sources of environmental news: A lean, remote, and highly collaborative operation that has produced thousands of stories across India’s diverse ecological and social landscapes. When Mongabay launched its India bureau in 2018, it was an experiment: Could a global environmental news outlet localize its journalism to a country as complex and varied as India? Sekar, then a former intern and freelance contributor, was selected to help answer that question—not from the sidelines, but from the center. As the bureau’s co-lead, she assumed responsibility for everything from staffing and fundraising to social media and strategic planning. And with her counterpart, editorial director Gopi Warrier, she’s helped guide the operation through its formative years. Sandhya Sekar in Kerala, India in 2025; Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler. Sekar’s path to journalism was shaped by dissatisfaction with academic silos. While completing her Ph.D. in ecology, she discovered that research alone could not satisfy her expansive curiosity about the natural world. Journalism offered a broader lens. “I didn’t want to work on just one topic,” she recalls. “I wanted to explore multiple facets of environmental science—evolution, wildlife, animal behavior, and more. I also wanted to learn about what…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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