Licypriya Kangujam

Licypriya Kangujam
At the United Nations Asia-Pacific Climate Week in Bangkok, 5 September 2019
Born	Licypriya Kangujam (2011-10-02) 2 October 2011 Bashikhong, Manipur, India
Occupations	Student, environmental activist
Years active	2018–present
Parents	Bidyarani Devi Kangujam Ongbi (mother) Kanarjit Kangujam Singh (father)
Relatives	Chinglensana Kangujam (uncle)

Licypriya Kangujam (Meitei pronunciation: [lisipɾija kaŋŋud͡ʒɐm]; born 2 October 2011) is an environmental activist from Manipur, India.^[1] She spoke at the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madrid and has been described in Indian media as one of the youngest climate activists in the world.^[2] She has been called "India's Greta Thunberg", a label she has rejected.^[3]

Investigations by ThePrint, Vice News, The Quint the Imphal Free Press, and Lux Magazine found that her public profile and several claimed awards were fabricated or managed by her father, Kanarjit Kangujam Singh (known as KK Singh), who was arrested in 2021 on charges of fraud, forgery, and cheating.^[4][5][6][7] Since 2023, she has publicly supported Arambai Tenggol, a Meitei militia implicated in violence against Kuki-Zo communities during the 2023–2025 Manipur violence, and crowdfunded military equipment for the group.^[8][9]

Licypriya Kangujam was born on 2 October 2011 in Bashikhong, Manipur, India, in a family of Meitei ethnicity.^[10] She is the eldest daughter of Kanarjit Kangujam Singh and Bidyarani Devi Kangujam Ongbi. In 2018, she attended a UN disaster conference in Mongolia with her father, after which she began activism and founded an organisation called the "Child Movement".^[11] Investigations later established that her father managed her public activities and social media accounts throughout this period.^[4][6]

In June 2019, Licypriya protested outside the Indian parliament for a week, calling on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pass climate change legislation.^[12] In December 2019, she spoke at COP25 in Madrid, where she met UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and submitted a memorandum on behalf of children.^[13] Her attendance was sponsored by the Government of Spain and the European Climate Foundation.^[6]

In January 2020, she co-signed a letter to the World Economic Forum with Greta Thunberg, Luisa Neubauer, Isabelle Axelsson, and Loukina Tille, calling on companies, banks, and governments to stop subsidising fossil fuels.^[14] She also campaigned to make climate change education mandatory in Indian schools; the government of Gujarat subsequently included climate change in its school curriculum.^[15] However, critics have disputed her role in this outcome, alleging that the Gujarat government's acknowledgement of her letter was a routine response rather than evidence that her activism directly influenced the curriculum change.^[16]

On 11 December 2023, Licypriya walked onto the main stage at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, holding a sign reading "End fossil fuels. Save our planet and our future." She was removed by security and said she was subsequently banned from further participation.^[17]

Licypriya's activism and public image were directed by her father, Kanarjit Kangujam Singh, who controlled her social media accounts and staged her public appearances.^[4][6] ThePrint noted that her social media accounts required parental consent to operate and were not controlled by her directly.^[4] At a 2020 environmental protest in Bengaluru, a fellow activist observed that Singh directed Licypriya to claim to the media that she had organised the event, and then posted photographs on her accounts portraying her as the leader of the protest.^[6][18]

Singh had previously founded the International Youth Committee (IYC), which he promoted as an international youth body. In 2015, he hosted a "World Youth Summit" in Imphal, which he falsely presented to local media as a UNESCO programme.^[6][4] As IYC declined from 2019 onward, Licypriya's profile rose to replace her father's public presence.^[6]

In March 2020, a group of activists including Madhish Parikh, a recipient of India's National Youth Award, wrote to government ministries alleging that Licypriya was being exploited by her father for his own interests.^[4] She was reported to have been withdrawn from school for at least one year in connection with protest activities.^[4]

The Imphal Free Press reported that awards Licypriya had received before 2020 had either been fabricated or bestowed by organisations connected to her father's IYC.^[6][19] In April 2019, she claimed to have been invited to speak at the UN Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva; a United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction official subsequently confirmed she was not an official speaker.^[19][20]

Singh also falsely claimed to be a visiting professor at Harvard University during a TEDx talk and misrepresented his organisations as having affiliations with UNESCO and the United Nations.^[5][6] He used logos of international bodies to create events that appeared official, collecting participation fees from students for programmes in Japan, Europe, and Mauritius that never took place.^[4][5]

Singh and Licypriya denied the allegations, attributing them to retaliation for her refusal to accept an invitation from Prime Minister Modi on International Women's Day in 2020.^[19]

On 31 May 2021, Singh was arrested in New Delhi in a joint operation by the Delhi Police Special Cell and Manipur Police on charges of forgery and cheating, following a complaint by Prajesh Khanal, a Nepalese student who alleged Singh had defrauded him through IYC.^[20] Singh had been declared an absconder by the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Imphal East since 2016, in connection with an earlier 2015 case involving fraud, assault, and criminal breach of trust.^[20][21]

Approximately one hundred young people from 12 countries alleged that Singh had collected fees for summits and exchange programmes through IYC that never took place. Complainants came from Tanzania, Azerbaijan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Nigeria, the Philippines, Bhutan, and Vietnam.^[5][6]

Singh served eight months in jail before securing bail.^[6] The Manipur Police subsequently booked him in a fourth case involving a crowdfunding campaign run in Licypriya's name on the platform Ketto, which sought ₹1 crore (approximately US$130,000) for oxygen concentrators during the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The concentrators were procured through the Noble Citizen Foundation, a Delhi-based NGO linked to Singh, and his associate in Manipur was found selling units that had been meant for free distribution.^[22]

The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights referred Licypriya's case to the Child Welfare Committee for inquiry and to ensure her safety.^[22]

Following the outbreak of the ethnic violence in Manipur in May 2023, which displaced over 60,000 people and killed more than 258,^[23] Licypriya publicly endorsed Arambai Tenggol on Facebook, writing: "I support Arambai Tenggol. More power to you all."^[24] The group, a Meitei militia, was described by Amnesty International as a radical extremist group responsible for assaults, sexual violence, and murder against the Kuki-Zo community,^[25] and Human Rights Watch documented that it received political patronage from the state government.^[23] The Jamestown Foundation reported that the group quadrupled in size during the conflict, its cadres looted police armouries, set fire to churches and Kuki-Zo villages, and wore stolen police commando uniforms during operations.^[26] Licypriya posted a photograph with members of the group, pledging support for the Meitei cause, and was photographed with its commander-in-chief, who was under investigation by the National Investigation Agency for allegedly looting arms from state armouries.^[9][6] She used her social media accounts to characterise the Kuki-Zo community as a threat, describing the "true Mentality of Kuki everywhere" as threatening and stating they were "not just threat to Manipur, but to entire India."^[24] Her posts on the conflict, which portrayed the Meitei community as victims, were mostly written in Meiteilon, keeping her international followers unaware of her positions, and she framed her support for the militia as part of a "climate war" between communities who "love nature" and those who "hate nature".^[6] The Quint identified her as one of several prominent social media figures through whom the dominant community's narrative was promoted during the conflict,^[27] and The Wesean Times & BOOM identified her as helping elevate the group's profile as it used social media to radicalise Meitei youth, including minors.^[9][28]

In December 2023, shortly after her appearance at COP28, Licypriya used Facebook to crowdfund for a thermal drone worth ₹7 lakh (approximately US$8,500), writing in Meiteilon that the drone was needed for "entering war" and that fighting without it "increases casualties". She posted personal digital payment details for donations.^[8][29]

In early 2024, she publicly donated military equipment, including thermal drones, to Arambai Tenggol.^[6] The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) and the Committee on Tribal Unity (COTU), Kuki-Zo civil society organisations, alleged that the drones were used in attacks against Kuki-Zo settlements. They criticised the lack of legal action against her, contrasting it with the prompt arrest of a Kuki youth on a similar charge.^[30] Her drone crowdfunding was cited in an academic study on the national security implications of the Manipur conflict published in the Journal of Asian and African Studies.^[31]

International climate organisations and media outlets largely did not scrutinise Licypriya's involvement in the Manipur conflict. She continued to receive invitations to international events, including a meeting with Pope Francis in Rome, while simultaneously fundraising for an armed militia.^[6] Dennis Lallienzuol Hmar, a Kuki-Zo youth climate activist, stated that her support was rooted in ethnonationalist sentiment rather than climate activism.^[6] In November 2024, East Mojo published an investigation examining whether her social media activity was contributing to the violence.^[32]

In November 2024, Licypriya's Facebook account was restricted in India; she attributed the restriction to posts about the killing of six women and children in Jiribam.^[33]

Keisam Pradipkumar, Chairperson of the Manipur Commission of Protection of Child Rights, stated in 2021 that if Licypriya was found to have been manipulated by her father, she would be classified as a child in need of care and protection. After speaking with the family, he said he found no evidence of manipulation, but noted that further investigation would fall outside his commission's mandate.^[6] The Manipur Alliance for Child Rights called for child protection officers to offer Licypriya counselling, citing concern about the impact of the situation on her wellbeing.^[5] Montu Ahanthem, convener of the alliance, warned of potential trauma.^[5]

• Greta Thunberg
• Ridhima Pandey
• Vanessa Nakate
• 2023–2025 Manipur violence
• Arambai Tenggol