The rolling ashes from Dzukou hills write back
The recent Dzukou valley fire, which was doused after two weeks, has raised an alert for several groups of people – local inhabitants, tourists, stakeholders, environmentalists and more. The 80-90…
About 43 million hectares of forest lost in 14 years
Forest land amounting to 43 million hectares, more than twice the size of the state of Karnataka, was cleared across the tropics and subtropics between 2004 and 2017, largely for commercial…
As butterfly parks come up for awareness, butterflies continue to lose habitat overall
Colourful and delicate, butterflies are not only beautiful creatures, but also play an essential role in the food chain as well as being indicators of the ecosystem. Of late, butterfly…
Conserving the grass on Himalayan slopes
"Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers, Grow, grow.” These words from the Talmud, a Jewish religious text, welcome the visitors at Dwarson, a…
Lantana invasion threatens 40 percent of India’s tiger habitat, reports study
While India talks about the impacts of developmental projects on biodiversity, an exotic plant with pretty flowers has diligently carved its way to degrade its forests. This plant, Lantana camara,…
During lockdown foresters try to balance field work and prevention of disease spread
On March 25, a few hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a country-wide lockdown to tackle the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, forest authorities in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh arrested…
The evolving story of India’s forests
From covering 640,819 square kilometres (19.49 percent) of India’s total land area in 1987 to covering 712,249 sq. km. (21.67 percent) of the country’s geographical area in 2019, India’s forest…
All forest fires may not be bad fires
It’s the forest fire season and the officials at the Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka have stepped up the ante on fire preparedness. With fire watchers assigned to look out…
[Commentary] Alternate perspectives on forest fires in India
A recent article in Mongabay-India about how to deal with forest fires in India argues that fire suppression should be replaced by fire prevention with the help of local communities.…
Most forest fires in India on account of human activity
The fires raging across Australia from September 2019 and the ones in California in 2018 have brought global attention to wildfires in the recent years. Around 6.3 million hectares of…
