Whenever it rains heavily, people of Raini village in Uttarakhand spend their nights huddled together in a place safe from the water. Their fear arises from the repeated disasters that…
Sagar Rawat is a resident of Kot village in the hilly district of Pauri Garhwal in Uttarakhand. He settled in the village after losing his job in an information technology…
Urja Pradesh (power state) has been the slogan for infrastructure development in the Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, ever since it came into existence in 2000. Over the years, more…
"पहाड़ का पानी और पहाड़ की जवानी पहाड़ में नहीं रुकती " (the water of the mountains and the youth living in the mountains, never stay in mountains). This local…
On a lazy April afternoon, Pallo Devi, 52, sits languidly on a bamboo and jute rope chair outside her home in Haripur Tongia village in Uttarakhand's Haridwar district. Dressed in…
In Uttarakhand, there is a strong drive to displace the nomadic pastoral tribe of Van Gujjars in order to protect wildlife. ‘Van’ means forest. It was an identity conceived by…
“I have never seen this kind of a forest fire before. This year, the fire entered our village, and I could see that it was just 100 meters away from…
Land-use changes in the western Himalayan forests, a global biodiversity hotspot with huge numbers of endemic species, have resulted in a massive decline in forest birds in the region, new…
As authorities race to rescue people trapped in Uttarakhand, following a devastating landslide-induced flash flood on February 7, scientists have called for deciphering the possibility of glacier-related hazards and enhance…
“This is our third day here. Some of us haven’t slept at all. We rescued 12 people on the first day but since then the task hasn’t been easy at…
The recent move to denotify Uttarakhand’s Shivalik Elephant Reserve, the only Elephant Reserve in the State, was thwarted by the Hon’ble High Court of Uttarakhand vide its Stay Order dated…
A mapping exercise for snakes in Uttarakhand, including a component on king cobras, is underway in the Himalayan-foothill state to enable a safer snake-human co-existence. The Uttarakhand forest department is…
The endangered Ganges river dolphin and species of threatened freshwater turtle and otter are wildlife “most at risk” from getting tangled up in waste fishing gear adrift in the transboundary…
On a bright sunny day in October, more than a dozen JCB machines roar together to dig and cut the hills in the picturesque Himalayan landscape of Uttarakhand. As the…
Over 90 percent of the habitat of the elongated tortoise falls outside the protected area (PA) network in the Indian subcontinent. Experts in India and Bangladesh bat for community-based conservation…
Scientists have found close genetic relationships between populations of the golden mahseer, an iconic freshwater fish in Indian rivers Bhagirathi and Ganga, while significant genetic differentiation was observed between Alaknanda…
Water pipes hugging a building, hostel dorms, intersections of cedar forest and scrub-covered hills, edges of an oak forest in a village, and open streams. The maiden systematic survey of…
“We thought otters were cats who came from the jungle and ate fish. We did not know much about otters,” recalls K. B. Rai, a homestay owner in East Sikkim,…
Unpacking patterns of leopard attacks on livestock and landscape features in the Indian Himalayas offers clues to potential human-leopard conflict hotspots, a study has said amid increasing encounters of wildlife…
Almost a hundred years ago, conservationist Jim Corbett rescued the people of Rudraprayag in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand, from the terror of a 'man-eater' that had claimed at least…