Brij Khandelwal

Brij Khandelwal of Agra is a well known journalist and environmentalist.

Khandelwal became a journalist after his course from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi in 1972. He has worked for various newspapers and agencies including the Times of India. He has also worked with UNI, NPA, Gemini News London, India Abroad, Everyman's Weekly (Indian Express), and India Today. Khandelwal edited Jan Saptahik of Lohia Trust, reporter of George Fernandes's Pratipaksh, correspondent in Agra for Swatantra Bharat, Pioneer, Hindustan Times, and Dainik Bhaskar until 2004). He wrote mostly on developmental subjects and environment and edited Samiksha Bharti, and Newspress Weekly. He has worked in many parts of India.

He has authored two books on the environment, Towards New Environment and Taj Mahal in Pollution Cauldron: A Reporter's Diary.

Over the years he has written thousands of news stories and articles published in various newspapers and periodicals all over. He figured in a National Geographic TV channel film on the Taj Mahal. Also in BBC's India on Four Wheels, and CNN's documentary on the Yamuna and the Taj Mahal.

Khandelwal has been actively involved in saving the river Yamuna in the Braj region.

Presently he is associated with the international news agency IANS also he worked for the PTI and the Times of India. He has taught journalism at the Agra University the Central Hindi Institute's Department of Journalism and Mass Communication for over three decades. His political stance is slightly left of the centre.

He has been associated with the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society, Design for Change, Sri Nathji Nishulk Jal Sewa, and the My Clean India campaign. He has also worked with various human rights groups. He is the national convener of the River Connect Campaign, founded in 2014 for the rejuvenation of the Yamuna river in the Braj area. He is on the editorial board of Vrindavan Today monthly published from Vrindavan, as also Right Reason monthly. Brij Khandelwal was in news during 2024 national elections on the issue of the Kachchativvu island which had been gifted to Sri Lanka in 1974. Khandelwal filed a petition in the Delhi High Court in 1974 to stall the transfer of the island but the petition was dismissed, due to emergency provisions and some technical issues. Khandelwal is married to Padmini K Iyer, an ex-Tamil journalist. They have one daughter, Mukta who is married and settled in Mysore.