Fall armyworm, destroyer of maize farms, causes concern in India
Maize farmers in many parts of Karnataka were taken by surprise in July last year when an unknown caterpillar attacked their crop. It didn’t take scientists long to identify the…
Articles by Manupriya
Scientists seek help from wheat’s wild cousins to sustain high yields
In the year 2014, when Jammu and Kashmir was facing one of its worst floods, a group of researchers from the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) and Punjab…
Forest fires impact typical Himalayan trees
The western Indian Himalayas, spread across Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, have always been known for their pines, cedars and oaks. These trees are so typical to the…
Threatened and undocumented sea snakes of India
They are neither well-known nor well-studied. Now a documentation of India's sea snakes hopes to stimulate further research interest and bring focus on the conservation of these marine creatures. In…
The grizzled giant squirrel struggles to survive in the face of habitat loss
For about a year now, P. O. Nameer and Kiran Thomas have been walking the slopes of Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala looking for a special kind of squirrel. Called…
A new species of shark from studying fish by-catch
On 26 April 2008, a never-before-seen species of shark arrived on the fishing harbour in Kochi. It was accidentally caught while fishing for economically important sharks from the deep-sea waters.…
Following the sound trail: pulling India’s cicadas out of oblivion
On a wet rainy day in 2014, Kiran Marathe was busy looking for loud, clamorous cicadas hiding in the bushes, in Verlem district in South Goa. Marathe, a young 20-something…
A tiny new fish discovered in a secluded stream in the Western Ghats
The Kabini river originates in the Western Ghats of northern Kerala. Cutting through the Ghats, it flows eastwards to join the Cauvery river in the neighbouring state of Karnataka. During…
Scientists describe new species of shieldtail snakes found in Anaikatti hills
About an hour’s drive away from Coimbatore, in the Anaikatti hills, scientists from the herpetology division of Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) have found a new…
Corals in Gulf of Mannar show signs of recovery after bleaching, but new threats loom
Coral reefs in the Gulf of Mannar (GoM), off the coast of Tamil Nadu in southern India, seem to be recovering after a mass coral bleaching event in 2017. At…
