A brand new family of bony fishes from south India
With its long, scaly body and delicate, veil-like fins, the Gollum snakehead captured quite some attention when discovered last year in south India. Now, scientists have found that it is…
Articles by Aathira Perinchery
Conserving high elevation shola-grasslands crucial for the endemic Nilgiri pipit
If it's bright-hued birds you prefer watching, you'd barely look at a Nilgiri pipit twice. Moreover, the bird can be difficult to spot: the drab-coloured tones on its small, streaked…
How butterflies strike a relationship with ants using specialised organs
Some butterflies go to any lengths to make ant-friends. Their caterpillars have evolved button-like spots on their backs to spout sugary rewards to attract ants; a special gland in their…
Conserve both large intact and small degraded habitats to maintain biodiversity
Scientists are undivided on the need to conserve natural habitats to maintain biodiversity, but divided on which ones to prioritise: intact wild habitats, or fragmented, degraded lands that are becoming…
Discoveries and rediscoveries: Stoneflowers in northeast India
To anyone else, the dried herb pressed neatly into crisp white paper would have been just another herbarium specimen. But for scientists at the Indian Institute for Science Education and…
The Indian dragons we know so little about
It was October 2013. Armed with special permission, researcher Dinal Samarasinghe was peering at preserved animal specimens at Kolkata's Zoological Survey of India. While the ZSI is a repository of…
Leopard genes hint at a probable population decline in India a century or two ago
Leopards are what ecologists call 'generalists'. These big cats can thrive in a wide range of habitats – from lush, undisturbed evergreen forests to sugarcane fields and other human-dominated landscapes…
From shed hair, scientists obtain whole genomes of wild tigers
Wild tigers are hard to study. That's why India's tiger census uses camera traps to take photographs of tigers as they walk unsuspectingly by; geneticists pick up tiger poop or…
A new species of wood snake emerges in the Western Ghats, mottled in grey-brown
The sun beat down mercilessly. Being in the vicinity of south India's highest peak, in one of the coldest months – December – made no difference. After a tiring morning…
Bioresource access and benefit-sharing: How far have we come in India?
India became a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1994. The CBD is a multilateral treaty aimed at conserving biodiversity, its sustainable use and ensuring “fair and…
