March 2026: Convenings, Internships and river walks!
February / March 2026 updates from Veditum on time spent walking rivers, organising people for river protection, and details of upcoming events, and opportunities.
Introduction
The month February through March are exciting for us at Veditum as we traveled to Madhya Pradesh to take our work on rivers forward. We enjoyed talking to people concerned about our rivers, and are hopeful of the future as more people stand in solidarity with our rivers! We are also excited to have summer interns join us soon! Here are some quick updates.
Work opportunities with Veditum
Summer Internship 2026 with Veditum: Applications Open!
Applications are open for Summer Internships at Veditum India Foundation!
Students / recent graduates are invited to join our team this summer for a deep learning and work opportunity. We are looking for 3 student interns to work with the Veditum team across 2 of our projects – India Sand Watch (ISW) & Kolkata Change Makers (KCM). The roles are as below:
Role 1 | Visual Storytelling with ISW (2 interns)
Role 2 | Operations at KCM (1 intern)
More details and application process can be found on this page: JD | Internship Opportunity with Veditum – Summer 2026.
Please ensure that you have carefully read through the notes on this page before applying / sending in your queries related to the internship.
India Sand Watch
Team India Sand Watch in Madhya Pradesh
The India Sand Watch team, was in Madhya Pradesh for the later part of February in Chattarpur and Gwalior. Over the course of two weeks, we hosted a few convenings, organised Data Sprints, and other events.
We kick started the field visit with a two-day convening on rivers in Chhatarpur district, attended by local journalists, lawyers, and activists. After visiting some sand mining sites on the river Ken, we travelled across the state to Gwalior where we visited more mining sites on the Chambal river, and villages adjoining these sites with our partners from Wildlife Conservation Trust - India. You can see our mining observations archived on the India Sand Watch platform here: Ken and Chambal.
Over the subsequent weekend, we hosted a data sprint, river convening, and media workshop on environmental reporting - in collaboration with WCT-India, Awaaz Leadership Labs, India Water Portal, and Project WIND.
The convenings, workshops, and data sprint brought together actors from different backgrounds to discuss issues facing their rivers, and to imagine collaborative pathways for action to tackle these systemic problems in their geographies and with their areas of expertise.
Stay tuned for a blog with more details and learnings from our journey across MP!
Have you observed river sand mining? You can upload your observation to the ISW archive to contribute to our efforts to introduce environmental accountability in India’s sand mining sector! Report a mining observation here - India Sand Watch Mining Observation
Moving Upstream
Moving Upstream: Beas
Bageshwer Singh, our fellow from the Moving Upstream: Sindh fellowship, with support from Veditum, had undertaken a walk along River Beas as it flows through the state of Punjab. Through the month of February, Bageshwer and a few companions walked almost 200kms along the Beas, concluding their walk at Mirthal.
Detailed field notes and stories from the walk will be published on Veditum’s website soon. Till then, you can explore stories from 6000kms of past river walks that have been undertaken as part of the Moving Upstream project. Read here.
Moving Upstream: Ganga [Screening]
Since the release of our documentary Moving Upstream: Ganga, it has travelled far and wide across cities and countries, at film festivals and at screenings, engaging with people from all walks of life about our rivers. We are glad that the film was screened at The Commons cafe - Colchester on Feb 25th!
This screening was made possible through the kind efforts made by our friends Anisha and Dwarka. Both of them are wonderful artists whose work you should see. We are grateful for friends for carrying our stories with them!
If you would be interested in arranging for a screening of the film (available for free on YouTube), drop us a mail at - movingupstream@veditum.org. We would be more than delighted to have a conversation!
Moving Upstream: Luni
Stories from a Desert River [Talk]
Saurav Vaishnav, a fellow from the Moving Upstream Luni Fellowship program will be sharing stories from his walk along the river.
🗓️ 4pm to 5pm, Saturday 14th March 2026
📍 Quest Learning Observatory, Bangalore
🔗 Registration link: https://luma.com/uiptpfdu
Kolkata Change Makers (KCM)
We have some exciting events planned as the KCM initiative continues to grow. With direct involvement from our community, we have been steadily building action towards climate issues and accessibility in the city, along with creating more spaces for interdisciplinary interactive learning.
An interactive session with Sachi Maniar, Ashiyana Foundation
🖍️ In collaboration with the Teach for India Kolkata team, we are co-hosting an incredible learning space led by Sachi Maniar from Ashiyana Foundation. The session includes:
🌞 A talk about Sachi's work with children and young people in vulnerable contexts
☘️ Exploring restorative approaches to resolve challenges
🗓️ 6pm - 8:30pm, Thursday, 12th March 2026
📍Teach For India Kolkata Office, Park Street
🔗 Registration link: Leading with Relationships
KCM March Circle
The KCM March ‘26 circle will be hosted on Saturday, 14th March. Join us for an evening of meeting other change makers in the city. We have exciting events planned, starting with our first footpath audit walk, followed by a sharing circle and river reading circle, in theme with the International Day of Action for Rivers.
Register here if you’re in Kolkata: veditum.org/kcm140326
Climate Events Day
We have two incredible events planned, starting with the Climate Fresk, a fun, cooperative, science-based card game that deepens the learners’ understanding on climate change, facilitated by Pauline, founder & CEO of the Rebalance Institute.
This will be followed by an interactive session on Climate Finance by development economist Daipayan Ghosh, who will share with us how climate projects at governmental and multilateral levels actually get funded.
🗓️Join us at our office space on Sunday 15th March, from 10 to 4 pm.
🔗You can register for this in-person event here: veditum.org/vifo150326
Support Veditum’s work with a donation or by volunteering
Please note that Veditum can accept donations only from Indian citizens and through domestic payment methods only. International cards will not work.
You can also volunteer with Veditum, read more at this link.
Publishing / Recommended Readings
It is always good to see the recognition of our work, and the use of knowledge creation through our projects.
मिर्ज़ापुर: पाबंदी के बावजूद गंगा किनारे अवैध खनन जारी, दुर्लभ कछुओं के प्रजनन स्थल पर गहराया खतरा | Brijendra Dubey, India Water Portal
Journalist Brijendra Dubey had participated in our Convening on Rivers (Bhopal) last year. As part of his fellowship with the India Water Portal, he then reported on the issue of sand mining in the Mirzapur Turtle Sanctuary. The India Sand Watch team was able to assist in this story in a few ways, including the creation of maps for the story, which was done by Rhea Lopez.
The article talks about how despite bans on sand mining, it continues which is threatening the habitats of these turtles, some of them rare and endemic to the region. Read the full article and check out the maps here: Hindi Version / English Version
How sand mining is reshaping riverbeds and water quality in India | Dr. Priyank Patel for India Water Portal
Dr. Priyank Patel, Presidency University Kolkata, in his article for India Water Portal talks about how sand mining shapes rivers and water quality. In this highly informative piece, he says,
“ Independent repositories such as India Sand Watch help bridge this gap. They bring together official records, satellite observations, and media reports on both legal and illegal sand mining. Continued documentation and long term monitoring are essential if regulations are to be enforced effectively and if rivers are to be given real recovery time between mining cycles.”
Read the full article here: How sand mining is reshaping riverbeds and water quality in India
Recommended people / groups to follow
International Rivers is celebrating the 29th Day of Action for Rivers on March 14. This year, the theme is “Protect Rivers, Protect People”. The global event aims to bring people together to celebrate rivers across the globe and the people protecting them! You can plan an event, join others across the world.
To know more about the event, and how you can be a part of it, read here: Day of Action for Rivers
Volunteer with us
If our work inspires you, do consider volunteering with us! We love sharing our work to people, and we would love for you to take it forward with us.
You can sign up for volunteering here on this link : Volunteer with Veditum
Please note that Veditum can accept donations only from Indian citizens and through domestic payment methods only. International cards will not work.
Thank you for reading through!
We’ll be back next month with updates from our events, more invitations, and opportunities. Until then, take care and follow us on social media if you’re active on these platforms:
Veditum: Instagram | Linkedin | YouTube | Twitter | Facebook
Moving Upstream: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
India Sand Watch: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Kolkata Change Makers: Instagram | LinkedIn
Warmly,
Team Veditum