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		<title>Mongabay India</title>
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		<link>https://india.mongabay.com/list/marshlands/</link>
		<description>India&#039;s environmental science and conservation news</description>
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					<title>A salt marsh through time [Commentary]</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-salt-marsh-through-time-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-salt-marsh-through-time-commentary/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2026 16:41:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[C.P. Rajendran]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Priyanka Shankar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[desert]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[environmental history]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[geology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[natural history]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Salt]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[salt pans]]></category>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=38174</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Just Transitions]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Gujarat]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ecology, Marshlands, Oceans, Rivers, Thar Desert, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Have you ever heard of a desert that disappears every year, only to return? Rann of Kutch is a landscape where a shallow sea floods the land for a few months each monsoon. During the monsoons, tidal currents from the Gulf of Kutch flow onto this white desert, transforming it into an inland sea. As [&#8230;]]]>
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							<![CDATA[Have you ever heard of a desert that disappears every year, only to return? Rann of Kutch is a landscape where a shallow sea floods the land for a few months each monsoon. During the monsoons, tidal currents from the Gulf of Kutch flow onto this white desert, transforming it into an inland sea. As the monsoon retreats, the waters recede, leaving behind an endless stretch of snowy flats. Migratory birds like flamingos descend upon the newly formed lake, where they feed on fish and hatch their young on the fringes of the marshes, which then turn green. But this doesn’t last forever. Come summer, the water recedes, the earth dries, and you see a land that stretches to the horizon — snow white, with shiny crystals of salt. This is the Rann of Kutch in the western Indian state of Gujarat, where a desert changes its appearance with the seasons, year after year. The features are not permanent; they come and go. Derived from Hindi, rann means salt marsh, and Kutch refers to an alternately wet and dry place. This large area of salt marshes, called the Rann of Kutch (also spelt Kachchh), stretches across the border between India and Pakistan. Much of it lies in the Kutch district of Gujarat and extends into Sindh in Pakistan. Occupying around 26,000 square kilometres and extending east to west, the Rann of Kutch is divided into the Great Rann and the Little Rann. This &#8220;marsh of alluvium&#8221; is home to India&#8217;s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-salt-marsh-through-time-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fireflies appear to be vanishing in this Andhra Pradesh village</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/04/fireflies-appear-to-be-vanishing-in-andhra-pradesh-village/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/04/fireflies-appear-to-be-vanishing-in-andhra-pradesh-village/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Apr 2020 10:32:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Neha Jain]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[habitat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[insects]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[population decline]]></category>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=9504</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Species]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andhra Pradesh]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Insects, and Marshlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Light shows put on by fireflies are not just a fascinating sight. The genes responsible for this luminescence have many applications from medicine to forensics to food safety testing. Compared with other countries, fireflies have not been well-studied in India, especially in southern India. But in 2019, a researcher from the Tamil Nadu-based National Centre [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Light shows put on by fireflies are not just a fascinating sight. The genes responsible for this luminescence have many applications from medicine to forensics to food safety testing. Compared with other countries, fireflies have not been well-studied in India, especially in southern India. But in 2019, a researcher from the Tamil Nadu-based National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) detected a drastic decline in the population density of a species of firefly in Barrankula village in Andhra Pradesh compared to 1996, 23 years ago. The decline in firefly population density has ecological and conservation implications, said project scientist Ramesh Chatragadda and lead author of the study. “Based on literature and local environmental conditions, pesticides are believed to affect the firefly population,” he said, adding that climate change could also be a factor. Fireflies are beetles comprising around 2,000 species, but only some can glow. Using a chemical reaction, males are able to produce their own light, known as bioluminescence, which is used to attract females for mating. The light emitted by fireflies consists of different colours such as yellow, green and even light red in some cases. Each species displays a unique pattern of light flashes. This process is highly efficient with almost 100 percent of the energy converted to light. Fluorescent light bulbs, in comparison, convert only about 85 percent of energy to light. Firefly at Bhavani Island, Andhra Pradesh. Fireflies are beetles comprising around 2,000 species, but only some can glow. Photo by Sumanth699/Wikimedia Commons. Disappearing lights Chatragadda&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2020/04/fireflies-appear-to-be-vanishing-in-andhra-pradesh-village/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Has Kashmir wronged its water bodies?</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2018/05/has-kashmir-wronged-its-water-bodies/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2018/05/has-kashmir-wronged-its-water-bodies/?noamp=mobile#comments</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2018 11:36:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Athar Parvaiz]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sandhya Sekar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2018/05/26154706/Boatman-in-Dal-Lake_Athar-Parvaiz-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=1219</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Himalayas and Jammu and Kashmir]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Deforestation, Forests, Lakes, Marshlands, Mountains, Pollution, Rivers, Waste management, Water Pollution, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In his 1895 book, The Valley of Kashmir, Sir Walter Lawrence, who served in the Indian Civil Service in British India and was posted as the Settlement Commissioner of Kashmir, quotes Kashmiri artisans as saying that “Shawls of Kashmir owe much of their excellence to being washed in the soft waters of the Dal Lake.” [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In his 1895 book, The Valley of Kashmir, Sir Walter Lawrence, who served in the Indian Civil Service in British India and was posted as the Settlement Commissioner of Kashmir, quotes Kashmiri artisans as saying that “Shawls of Kashmir owe much of their excellence to being washed in the soft waters of the Dal Lake.” Often termed as the “jewel in the crown of Kashmir”, Dal Lake is the second largest water body within the Kashmir region and a major attraction for tourists. Overlooked by the splendid Zabarwan mountain range, the Lake is beautifully situated in the heart of Srinagar city in mountainous Jammu &amp; Kashmir. Praising the beauty of the lake himself, Lawrence writes: “Perhaps in the whole world there is no corner as pleasant as the Dal Lake.” From pleasant to “filthy” Sadly enough, unbridled urban development in recent decades has not only deprived the lake of that pleasantness, but has turned it into a vast cesspool which receives untreated sewage from old Srinagar city, where most of the city’s 1.5 million population is concentrated. Over a century after Lawrence’s terse description of Dal Lake’s beauty, the title of a cable released by Wiki leaks in September 2011 about Kashmir politics suggested how widespread and manifest the lake’s ecological degradation had become. The cable titled “Kashmir politics as filthy as Dal Lake,” was sent in April 2006 by US ambassador, David Mulford, from New Delhi to Washington. A man walks on a long wooden walkway bridge in Srinagar&#8217;s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2018/05/has-kashmir-wronged-its-water-bodies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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