Venomous snakebites, an occupational hazard for women tea workers
Pahi Bhumij shudders to recall that day, and says she is grateful to have escaped death. On May 5, as part of her routine, Bhumij went to work in a…
Articles by Bikash Kumar Bhattacharya
Bikash Kumar Bhattacharya is a freelance journalist based in Assam, Northeast India. His articles have appeared on Eurasia Review, The Assam Tribune, The Telegraph, www.youthkiawaaz.com and several Assamese language newspapers and magazines. His broad interest lies in environmental humanities and Southeast Asian political developments.
Oil palm farmers in Arunachal Pradesh lose hope in absence of processing mills, market, road linkage
Over the past seven years, Takali Tamuk, a farmer and agro-entrepreneur from Pasighat in the East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh, has attended several outreach programmes on oil palm cultivation.…
In Arunachal’s Sessa Orchid Sanctuary communities collaborate with forest officials to conserve orchids
Located in the West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, the 100 square kilometre Sessa Orchid Sanctuary is home to more than 200 species of orchids including several endemic and rare…
The birth of Raimona, Assam’s sixth national park
In his hunting journal Thirty-Seven Years of Big Game Shooting, the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, Niprendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur, notes that in a few days’ sport in the month of…
Assam’s wild water buffalo is treading troubled waters
Describing the abundance of the wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee) in Assam in his memoir Travels and Adventures in the Province of Assam (1855), Major John Butler, a British colonial…
Mizoram’s balancing act with palm oil’s ecological impact and economic benefits
Vanlaldika, a temporary forest guard in Dampa Tiger Reserve, one of the last remaining tiger habitats in Mizoram, has been cultivating oil palm for the past seven years. Vanlaldika, hails…
Human activity disturbs quiet habitat of black-necked cranes in Arunachal Pradesh
Locally known as Thung Thung Karmu, the black-necked crane (Grus nigricollis) is not simply a bird but an emotion for the inhabitants of Sangti and Zemithang valleys in Arunachal Pradesh…
Saving the Asiatic black bear from illegal wildlife trade needs nuanced conservation
When Terde Yomcha brought Luba home, she was so tiny that she could fit in his hands. Luba is an Asiatic black bear cub—a species threatened by illegal wildlife trade…
When tigers, elephants, rhinos visit an expanding Indian town
When 25-year-old e-rickshaw driver Javed Ali went out for work on the morning of November 23 last year, he had little idea that he would return home with the nightmarish…
Climate change threatens traditional way of life of Brokpa herders in Arunachal Pradesh
From a bird’s eye view, this animal’s extensive presence in the snow-clad alpine and the subalpine Himalayas makes the landscape look like a crumpled white sheet punctuated with shaggy black…
At India’s Assam Zoo, decades of experience lead to rhino-breeding success
One August afternoon in 1991, rangers at India's Kaziranga National Park rescued a startled rhino calf. The young female, believed to be just a few months old, had just survived…
Who killed the wandering rhino in Assam?
On February 5, 2018, rangers at Orang National Park in the northeast Indian state of Assam received multiple phone calls from villagers reporting sightings of a stray rhino. Dawdling and…
Tigers are vanishing outside protected areas in the northeast
The annual marathon used to be a big event in Bokolia, a small town in eastern Assam’s picturesque hill district of Karbi Anglong. The participants would run from Bokolia to…
Communities join hands to keep alive the hoolock gibbon’s song
The call of the western hoolock gibbon, a series of whoops, hoots and tones that rise in a crescendo, is background music in the villages of Meghalaya. Mornings begin with this…
Assam’s rhino habitat overtaken by invasives
On a gloomy afternoon in May 2018, conservation biologist Bibhab Talukdar was visiting Pobitora National Park in Assam. As he rode an elephant into the grasslands at the core of…
Mulai Kathoni: a young man’s dream is now a thriving ‘people’s forest’
In 1980, the social forestry wing of the Assam state forest department in northeastern India launched an experimental programme that aimed to measure how well tree cover could protect against…
The women in Assam who live alongside rhinos
Kasema Khatun’s tiny, thatched-roof house lies just a few feet from the swaying elephant grass thickets of Orang National Park, a 78-square-kilometre (30-square-mile) protected area in the northeastern Indian state…
Special series
Wetland Champions
- [Commentary] India establishes the largest network of Ramsar Sites in South Asia
- [Commentary] Wetland champions: Promise from the grassroots
- The story of Jakkur lake sets an example for inclusive rejuvenation projects
- Welcome to Tsomgo lake: Please don’t litter
Environment And Health
- Gig workers in India are exposed to highly polluted air and carcinogens, finds preliminary study
- [Explainer] Living with microplastics, is not fantastic
- Residents in Haryana point to stone crushing units for their respiratory troubles and drop in crop yield
- As heatwaves projected to worsen across India, do vulnerability assessments and heat action plans suffice?
Almost Famous Species
- Hybridisation, roadkills are major threats for the Indian desert cat population
- From abundance to endangerment to revival, Kachchh’s guggal comes a full circle
- [Commentary] Why are evolutionary scientists studying the crawlies?
- The silent trade of elusive small cats in Mizoram
Eco Hope
- Green pilgrimage model balances faith and conservation
- [Video] Restoring the perennial Thamirabarani river with people power
- [Interview] Conservation scientist Joli Rumi Borah on integrating traditional knowledge in research
- [Interview] Scientist Ruth DeFries on deforestation: There isn’t one driver, there’s a different context in different places
India's Iconic Landscapes
- Studies reveal impact of land use on species diversity in rock outcrops
- Improved tiger numbers come with hidden messages on invasives, habitat connectivity
- Gymnosperms that are critical for coniferous forest health may be steadily declining in response to climate change
- Experts call for coexistence, sustainable development as tiger population is close to saturation
Beyond Protected Areas
- Hybridisation, roadkills are major threats for the Indian desert cat population
- [Video] Farmers grow paddy for wild elephants in Assam to reduce conflicts
- Megaherbivores could be a potential solution to manage invasive plants, finds study
- Darkness-loving bats are being nudged out of the shadows
Conserving Agro-biodiversity
- Excavating farmlands for highways
- Increasing carbon dioxide is making our food less nutritious
- Ecosystem-based adaptation takes nature-based, people-centric approach to agriculture
- [Commentary] How grassroots-led natural farming at the landscape scale can support communities and heal the planet
Just Transitions
- With no primary data on impacts, government approves an oil extraction technique 500 m outside forests
- Climate action not on track to meet Paris Agreement goals, says Global Stocktake report
- [Interview] Suravee Nayak on why transformative justice for women, Dalits is key for a just transition
- Promised rehabilitation eludes residents living near one of India’s earliest coal mines
