Untangling a Silent Threat in the Ganges By | Posted on | You won’t know when. You won’t know where. You must keep your peripheral vision peeled and neck rotating 180 degrees perpetually, for a split-second sighting along the river as it breaks the surface for air. That is the only way to catch a…
Don’t Kill That Spider! Rescue It. By | Posted on | Mercy “She asks me to kill the spider.Instead, I get the mostpeaceful weapons I can find. I take a cup and a napkin.I catch the spider, put it outsideand allow it to walk away. If I am ever caught in the wrong placeat the…
The Last of the Forest Giants : Central India’s Wild Buffaloes By | Posted on | When we think of charismatic mammals of the central Indian forests, we tend to think of tigers, leopards, dholes, barasinghas, and gaurs. With the recent return of elephants to central India, some would add these pachyderm to the list…
Return of the Jatayu By | Posted on | There was a time when millions of vultures soared across the skies of the Indian subcontinent. This was true right uptil the late 1980s, when the estimated population of vultures was around 4 crore. Then, in the 1990s, the vultures of the Gyps species – white-rumped…
Using ‘Moths’ to Hear Dolphins By | Posted on | Ganges river dolphins are never quiet. They are effectively blind and do not need eyesight to live in the super-murky, sediment-rich waters of their riverine habitat. But this means that they must echolocate almost constantly to map their environment and navigate, feed, rest, and respond…
The Siwaliks: Fossil Heaven On Earth By | Posted on | We drive through the dusty road that promises to take us to my much-awaited destination ensconced in the Siwalik Hills in Himachal Pradesh. The hills grow bigger as we get closer, and soon we are in Suketi village, driving past the exposed rocks on…
A Law Enforcement Field Guide for Forest Staff By | Posted on | Wildlife watchers love a good field guide. It helps them identify plants and animals in the field, and tick off long lists of species they wish to see in the wild. And there are people that walk the wilds, not for leisure,…
Rewilded Bison are Climate Heroes By | Posted on | European Bison disappeared from Romania over 200 years ago. WWF Romania and Rewilding Europe have been working together to reintroduce this iconic species back to the Southern Carpathian mountains. Since the first translocation in 2014, more than 100 Bison have been brought back to the…
The Menace of Sand Mining in the Gangetic Plains: An Explainer By | Posted on | What is sand mining? Sand mining is the extraction of naturally formed sand from river banks, riverbeds, wetlands, or coasts. Sand is a silicate mineral and is of high value in construction, which is the primary driver of sand…
Gharials: Living on the Riverine Edge By | Posted on | Tarun Nair is a conservation biologist with an affinity for crocodilians and rivers. Leading the Wildlife Conservation Trust’s (WCT’s) Makara Programme, he works along North-Central Indian riverscapes that harbour the last remaining populations of the Critically Endangered gharial, a fish-eating crocodilian. To understand his…