In many ways, the Western Ghats is a study in contrast. While the foothills and slopes of the mountain range are covered in dense rainforest, the higher reaches are a…
As communities in the Western Ghats prepare for the national elections, the Munnar-Devikulam region and its fragile ecology are turning hot subjects of political debate not only in Idukki constituency…
When wildlife and forest specialists will meet in Colombo this May, at the 18th Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild…
Land acquisition for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream project, the bullet train, is far from over, but just ahead of India’s parliamentary elections the project has now received the Coastal Regulation…
For about a year now, P. O. Nameer and Kiran Thomas have been walking the slopes of Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala looking for a special kind of squirrel. Called…
A compilation of harrier roosts in India suggests that the wintering populations of these migrant birds of prey have declined between 1985 and 2015. “Harrier roost counts have shown a…
A citizen science project to monitor hornbill population in India, Hornbill Watch, is gaining momentum among the bird enthusiasts and researchers in the country. With the aim of assessing the…
After being criticised by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for failing to finalise the ecologically sensitive area (ESA) in the Western Ghats region, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate…
Often a defining feature of any landscape, a “boundary” as perceived by humans, is almost never seen as a limit by other species. On the other hand, a road or…
The much-publicised “bullet train” is estimated to speed through the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor in about two hours. But its development is cutting through decades of work by Mother Nature and its…
The race was between the slow-moving turtles and the industrial projects for India’s fast developing economy – the latter won. The expert panels of the Indian government’s Ministry of Environment,…
Thirty-year old Lakshmi, a day labourer from Chengam in Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu, is grief-stricken at the thought of not being able to grow her favourite flower anymore –…
With an aim to reduce the pressure of firewood extraction in forest habitats, conservationists are encouraging forest-dwelling communities in the Cauvery and Malai Mahadeshwara Hills Wildlife Sanctuaries in Karnataka to…
Is time running out for the 260-odd endangered sangai deer which have their only home Manipur? The sangai or the Indian Eld’s deer (Rucervus eldii eldii) resides as an isolated single…
In landslide-prone Giddapahar, a small hamlet nestled in the Darjeeling Himalayas known for its fragrant black tea, Bikash Thapa has become his community’s very own rain man. Aided by his…
Heavy, incessant rainfall is a fact of life for the people of Kodagu (the erstwhile Coorg district) in Karnataka. “For the old timers here in Coorg, the last few months…
India has brought an area of 9.8 million hectares of deforested and degraded land under restoration since 2011, in its effort to fulfil its commitment to the global Bonn Challenge,…
Building a new city from scratch presents the opportunity to avoid environmental mistakes that other cities have already made. So ever since the Andhra Pradesh Government began work on its…
As the birds returned to their roosts on a warm evening, a motley group of young people gather for a meeting in the Thekinkkad Maidan in Thrissur city of central…
The Western Ghats, a stretch of mountains running parallel to the western Indian coast, is a biodiversity hotspot, home to countless species that are unique to the region — known…