In a village called Lathedi in Kutch, amid the semi-arid landscape, a small patch of land has been fenced with thorny branches by the local community. The aim, they said,…
When she was a young girl, Sarojini Goyal of the Korba district of Chhattisgarh would often accompany her parents to the nearby forest to collect shoots, leaves, flowers, and fruits…
In Guneri, Kutch, there is a belief that many years ago, when the Indian subcontinent was not as fragmented, a Sufi saint had come to the region and planted two…
Bera in the Pali district of Rajasthan is often nicknamed ‘Leopard Country’. Widely regarded as being home to one of the highest densities of leopards found anywhere, the otherwise shy…
For centuries, the trees in Oran, or sacred grove, near the Samvata village in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer, have stood tall and untouched. Not a branch was cut, “not even for datoon (twig to clean…
Four years ago, when Minoti Naik of the coastal district of Bhadrak in Odisha, decided to send her 17-year-old son to the “city” for work, it was in hope that…
Twenty-three-year-old Radheshyam Pemani Bishnoi in western Rajasthan is one of the fortunate few who has seen the critically endangered great Indian bustard (GIB) in the wild. But it was not…
Nearly three lakh people in nine districts of Assam have been affected by the season’s ‘first flood’, triggered by cyclone Amphan, wreaking havoc in the state. A phenomenon that ravages…
As India continues the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, its impact is seen on the wildlife in western Rajasthan. The state has witnessed a rise…
As India is in an ongoing lockdown to control the spread of the novel coronavirus, there are concerns around the availability of food — both dry and fresh ration. Not…
“It felt like apocalypse.” The year was 2016 and it was a day after Diwali, one of India’s biggest festivals. Mukuta Das, a young woman who lived in Gurgaon in…
Sitting in his workshop in Ajrakhpur near Bhuj in Gujarat, India's westernmost state, Sufian Khatri gingerly holds a pale-yellow, naturally-dyed piece of sample cloth. Animal and floral motifs in a…
The floodwaters in Assam have receded. Among the most telling images of the devastation it caused on helpless animals, was that of a group of one-horned rhinos huddled on a…
Once upon a time, in the semi-arid plains of Kutch, grew plants that bore soft white tufts of indigenous, Wagad cotton. The cotton’s softness was in contrast to its hardy…
Nature does not discriminate. In the drought-hit Kutch, all living beings — man, animal, plants — are struggling to cope with its merciless onslaught. A large population of this semi-arid…
“Like fish trapped in a net,” Jam Ismael Ali smiled at the irony of the simile drawn to explain his own situation. One among the few remaining Pagadia fishermen in…
In the land of contrasts that Kutch is, winter is the lean feeding season for its unique breed of Kharai camels. These camels, unlike the kind most of us are…
Acres after acres of land, developed into fruit orchards of different kinds, break the wiry brown monotony of the Kutch landscape in Gujarat. This ‘transformation’ of the semi-arid land has…