Arathi Menon

Arathi Menon

About

Arathi Menon is a senior staff writer. She is based in Mysore, Karnataka.

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159 stories

V.B. Ajayakumar: A relentless voice for human rights and climate justice [Obituary]

Arathi Menon 5 Aug 2025
Brahmagiri serves as a crucial corridor for elephants and tigers, raising concerns about human-wildlife conflict that could intensify if the tribal colony is established.  The proposed land witnesses high wildlife activity and cattle lifting by tigers is frequently reported from nearby villages. Image by Bose Madappa.

Tribal resettlement near the forest a wild idea, say environmentalists

Arathi Menon 30 Jul 2025

A new biopark to expand urban green cover

Arathi Menon 9 Jul 2025
A Russel's viper. Image by CHANDRANUJ via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

A single pill to fight the fang

Arathi Menon 4 Jul 2025
A farmer harvests paddy. Representative image by Indranil Gayan via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

India gets two genome-edited rice varieties

Arathi Menon 2 Jul 2025
A Tetragonula iridipennis bee. Image by Ramesh Kunnappully via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

New study identifies stingless bees fit for polyhouse pollination 

Arathi Menon 1 Jul 2025
Heavy rain and flooding in Hyderabad. Image by Rajib Ghosh via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

District level mapping of climate extremes

Arathi Menon 25 Jun 2025
As summer heat intensifies each year, studies find that tin and cement roofs increase indoor heat stress in rural households. Image by Premsagar Tasgaonkar.

Too hot to handle as rural houses turn heat traps

Arathi Menon 23 Jun 2025
Women at work in a flower farm in Dodballapur, Karnataka. Image by Suneal patel via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Farms turn femme but women still plough through power centres

Arathi Menon 17 Jun 2025

All gain, no pain with stingless bees in greenhouse farming

Arathi Menon 6 Jun 2025

India releases genome-edited rice, draws both applause and alarm

Arathi Menon 2 Jun 2025
Experts say that the government must adopt policies to encourage more sustainable practices. Farmers can help restore the water table through ecological farming practices. Policies could also establish clear extraction limits. Image by Lakshmikantha N.R.

Scientists raise alarm as rural water supply goes from depths to debt

Arathi Menon 27 May 2025

Citizen science reveals lesser known invasive pest

Arathi Menon 16 May 2025
Elephants and people constantly overlap , leading to human-elephant conflict in the districts of Hassan, Kodagu, and Chikkamagaluru. Traditional mitigation methods like direct translocation or permanent captivity often fail, leading to the innovation of the soft release centre. Image by Vinod Krishnan.

Experts conflicted over the hard decision to soft release problem jumbos

Arathi Menon 13 May 2025
Study authors conducting field work at the Makum coalfield in Assam. Image courtesy of Harshita Bhatia.

Fossil study takes a leaf out of climate history to predict ecological changes

Arathi Menon 5 May 2025
Tea gardens in Ooty, The Nilgiris, below which land is being prepared for growing vegetables. Silver oak trees provide the filtered shade that is perfect for tea. UPASI is currently exploring the possibility of growing fruit trees that can provide similar shade. Representative image by Timothy A. Gonsalves via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Intercropping as an ecological solution to tea demand drop

Arathi Menon 22 Apr 2025
In what was arguably the biggest citizen-led environmental protest Telangana has witnessed in the recent past, university students, faculty, and environmentalists protested and stopped bulldozers from razing down Kancha Gachibowli. Image by xx.

Forest row spotlights diminishing value of urban green patches

Arathi Menon 9 Apr 2025
A river heliodor damselfly. Image by Ameya Deshpande.

Damselflies in climate distress

Arathi Menon 4 Apr 2025
Various specimens of insects on display at the Insect Biosystematics and Conservation Lab. Image by Abhishek N. Chinnappa.

A study centre for little things that run the world

Arathi Menon 18 Mar 2025
bare-bellied hedgehog

Bare-bellied and barely seen, Madras hedgehog needs a headcount

Arathi Menon 19 Feb 2025

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A study on forest fire susceptibility found that the area highly susceptible to forest fires in the western Himalayas could shift or expand significantly in the coming decades. Image courtesy of J&K Forest Department.
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