Reconstruction of 700 years of the Brahmaputra river’s water flow in the monsoon season, based on tree-ring data, suggests that the transboundary river’s real flood risk is likely an underestimate…
Coral reefs feature prominently in today's climate change discourse. Studies have shown how warming oceans worldwide cause corals to bleach: they lose the algae that give them their colours, become…
In 2019, budding ethnobotanist Momang Taram and her friend Ojar Taku were scouting the Siang river valley in Arunachal Pradesh for flowering plants belonging to a specific family. “Then suddenly…
A 15-year-old community conserved area (CCA) model followed in Western Arunachal Pradesh has helped in involving the villagers in conservation initiatives in forests that lie outside protected areas by ensuring…
“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,…
Floods which are a recurring phenomenon in the northeast Indian state of Assam have hit the state heavily this year but healthcare workers have risen to the occasion serving the…
Shifting cultivation continues to be a predominant agricultural practice in many parts of India, despite state discouragement and multipronged efforts to wean indigenous communities away from it. Their land, due…
Bidarva Rajkhowa, a pig breeder, is a worried man these days. Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t keep the dreaded African Swine Fever (ASF) away from his Rajkhowa Pig Breeding…
The forest advisory committee (FAC) of the Indian government’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has dismissed numerous representations that warned against irreversible damage to ecology if the…
Indian scientists are building a DNA database for red panda populations in the country, even as a report warns of “serious threats” to the bushy-tailed and chestnut-furred animals. The main…
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…
Hornbills disperse more than 90 percent of the seeds of the fruits they consume, and the larger-bodied great hornbills and wreathed hornbills can disperse seeds more than 10 km away…
Reptiles such as chameleons are famed for changing their colour and amphibians such as frogs often escape the radar. Not this time though. Researchers at a tiger reserve in the…
Through the use of the visual medium, the Green Hub Project in northeast India engages and empowers youth across eight states in the region, especially from remote tribal areas and…
Cameras placed across protected and community forests in the Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh recorded six different coat colours of the Asiatic golden cat (Catopuma temminckii). In all, the cameras…
The new-to-science Arunachal pit viper was perfectly camouflaged among dry leaf litter when Rohan Pandit and Wangchu Phiang accidentally stumbled upon it when out on a march through a forest…
The Himalayas support about 20 percent of the world’s population. But the ecologically fragile region, the storehouse of the third highest amount of frozen water on earth, is highly vulnerable…
With forest cover projected to shrink in the elephant landscape of northeast India, conservationists and a handful of growers of the iconic Assam and Darjeeling teas are experimenting with a…
A new study highlights a different perspective on the age-old practice of “shifting cultivation” – an agricultural form considered unsustainable and ecologically harmful. Documenting the knowledge of an indigenous community…
Community-led conservation initiatives from northeast India were in the spotlight at this year’s India Biodiversity Awards. Community reserves managed by Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve Management Committee in Arunachal Pradesh…
