Traditionally, crowded cities may seem like unlikely places for wild species to thrive, given the impacts on critical behaviours like roosting and reproduction. However, recent research challenges this assumption, revealing…
“Imagine this. Your palm is the region of Jaisalmer and the slope that reaches the centre of your palm forms the khadeen,” farmer Chhatar Singh tells Mongabay-India, explaining how the…
Known for its black or reddish-brown spots, the Asiatic wildcat (Felis lybica ornata), commonly known as the Indian desert cat, faces a number of anthropogenic threats, which is leading to…
Park authorities of the Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur, Rajasthan are actively preparing monitoring strategies after a rusty-spotted cat (Prionailurus rubiginosus), was photographed carrying its kitten in the park last…
With an estimated 50 individuals across the country, concentrated in the western parts of India, the caracal (Caracal caracal schmitzi), a small wild cat noted for its long-tufted ears and…
While vultures are greatly appreciated for taking care of carcasses, there is another scavenger whose contribution is often overlooked: the humble hyena. A new study, published in August, found that…
Strolling on the streets of Bichhri village, one sees water containers of all sizes kept outside or hung on the windows of most houses. One such house, half-built, covered with…
A long-term study to understand ways to balance conservation with religious practices, in three tiger reserves of India, has culminated in a set of comprehensive guidelines that provide concrete suggestions…
As temperatures rose in June this year, Jaman Singh Saini, a 69-year-old farmer from Badangarh village in Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan, was irrigating his 31-acre farmland of millets, using an…
On May 3, this year, 111 camels from Rajasthan were ‘rescued’ from presumed slaughter as they were passing through Nasik in Maharashtra. Authorities confiscated the animals and put them into…
In Rajasthan, an elephant rescued from traffickers over 500 days ago, still awaits a suitable shelter. In the absence of proper infrastructure to treat rescued elephants, officials are unsure of…
Fifty-two-year-old Subhash Vaishnav lives in Gulabpura town in the Bhilwara district of Rajasthan. He wakes up at 5 a.m. every day, and after finishing his daily chores at home, he…
When the plunging mercury set new records in the Ganganagar district of Rajasthan and people shivered even in their warm quilts, Satveer Singh, a 50-year-old farmer from Mohanpura village, had…
Environmental changes, including changing rainfall patterns and vegetation, have affected Rajasthan’s desert ecology, impacting local flora and fauna. Rajasthan, the desert state of India, was in the news this July…
It’s dawn on a summer day in Sanwata village in the desert state of Rajasthan. Even at this early hour, there are concerns about the rising heat. The desert too,…
Thar desert on India’s northwest periphery is full of challenges. Extending westwards from the Aravalli mountains, it is a vast expanse of sand, rocky outcrops, and scorching earth. Daytime temperatures…
Fifty years after the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 came into existence, raising hope that human-animal conflicts would reduce and poachers who were decimating our forest and rivers of their animal…
The National Capital Region (NCR) Draft Regional Plan 2041 is proposed as the next iteration of the NCR Regional Plan 2021, which has been in force since 2005. The draft…
Bhavana Devi, or Bhuri, as she is known by people in the village of Kerpura in Rajasthan’s Udaipur district, cheerfully opens the rusted iron doors to her home. Sunlight streams…
The Chambal river landscape is semi arid. It is in this region, marked by gullies and ravines, and spanning three of India’s largest states, that the critically endangered Batagur kachuga…