Articles by Bhanu Sridharan

Standing in the middle of a grassy hill, Thorthey Gooden looked around. The grass was short, just an inch long – like a lawn drying out in the summer. In…

Most forests in India are home to the Indian muntjac, also called barking deer. Found across southern India, including the Western Ghats, in the dry forests of central India, the…

One of the most biodiverse regions of the Western Ghats, the Nilgiris (the blue mountains) comprise a range of ecosystems including dry deciduous forests at its base, dense evergreen forests…

In many ways, the Western Ghats is a study in contrast. While the foothills and slopes of the mountain range are covered in dense rainforest, the higher reaches are a…

Imagine your home, a vast open space with gentle hillocks, grassy fields and massive boulders, is slowly encroached upon by a growing city, hungry for land. The hills are levelled,…

In the already ancient marine world, sharks and their close relatives, rays and skates, can claim a unique early ancestry. Their first ancestor is estimated to have arrived around 350…

In early August this year, staff at the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary, in coastal Andhra Pradesh, wrapped up their first census of the elusive fishing cat, a species that is otherwise…

Most households in South Asia would have at some point given shelter to the common house gecko Hemidactylus frenatus. This pale colourless reptile inhabiting the corners of our ceilings, has…

Consider the common black rat Rattus rattus. Although native to southern India, the black rat, also called a ship rat because of its habit of boarding ships, has been scoring…

Every year during the dry season between December and March, a dirty haze appears over South Asia and China. It is a potent mixture of pollutants borne out of wood…