Sandy shores, sand dunes, mangroves, mudflats, cliffs, seagrass meadows, salt marshes – these scenic features often make news as they face frequent threats. Marine litter, extreme weather and building activities…
The Rupa Buddhist monastery is abuzz with activity as the Shertukpen people, a prominent tribe residing in the Rupa sub-division of the West Kameng district in the northeastern state of…
Iho Mitapo grew up hearing stories about how his elders made long journeys every day from their homes in the Elopa and Etugu villages in the hills, crossing forests and…
Between the towering Pir Panjal and Zanskar ranges in the Himalayas, lies one of the largest pasturelands called Thanpattan, spanning approximately 570 square kilometres. As I walked the pastureland in…
Community tropical forest management is a predictor of multiple positive outcomes, both socially and for the environment, a recent peer-reviewed study found. According to the paper, published in Nature Climate…
On the bank of the horseshoe-shaped Safrai river in the Chala village of Assam’s Charaideo district, stands a lush evergreen forest of over 680 hectares. Nearby, the rectangular shaped structure…
When her mother-in-law started taking her along on forest patrols, Pramila Pradhan, 51, began embracing thengapalli, a form of forest stewardship. In Kodalpalli, Odisha, thenga means stick, and palli means…
“It is just like a human being,” said Mahipatsinh Sodha, a farmer from Gujarat’s Kachchh district, about guggal, a native plant species in the region, which the International Union for…
India's agricultural sector stands at a crucial crossroads today, grappling with numerous challenges that threaten the livelihoods of millions of farmers and the sustainability of the planet. In recent times,…
Thamirabarani is a perennial river in south India that flows through the districts of Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu. Originating from the Western Ghats, the life-giving river dribbles, sprints…
The memory came alive as I sat down to transcribe the recordings from the field. All I could hear was “pach-pach” and “sha-sha” behind my own heavy breathing from walking.…
In the last few decades, nature conservation across the world has increasingly relied on measuring the economic value of ecosystem services (ES) provided by nature, in a bid to highlight…
Community Reserves (CRs), or protected areas managed by indigenous communities, are a useful instrument to balance conservation priorities and livelihood requirements of the communities, finds a study, which examines the…
Walking on the shores of Elliot's beach in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, with an 18-member-group of children is naturalist, educator and activist, Yuvan Aves. He asks them, “Oh! So, this is…
On a January evening, standing on the precincts of the ancient Shree Dattatraya Temple, about 200 metres from the Kajli river in Maharashtra, 50-year-old Sidharth Kabnoorkar of Kondgaon-Sakharpa village told…
India's finance minister has announced two major programmes for mangrove plantation and wetlands conservation in the country's latest annual budget, drawing a mixed response among the conservation academics who welcomed…
Wetlands, which connect land and water are among the planet’s most productive and diverse habitats. They play a significant role in shaping our biosphere. Wetlands in the coastal state of…
“Nobody wishes to be a killer. To be held responsible for any being’s death can be traumatising. Let alone an elephant, even the death of a dog, a goat or…
Asian elephants, despite needing 150 kilograms of wild fodder every day, are picky eaters, suggests a recent study in PLOS One by scientists from the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology…
N. S. Jodha’s pioneering work on Commons in 1986 alerted us to the poor’s dependency on these resources. When the commons degrade, the poor suffers the most. However, we knew…
