New research reveals tea plantations can support biodiversity from native plants, wildlife and microorganisms when managed in an agro-ecological setting with sustainable, good practices. Scientists at Ashoka Trust for Research…
Until a few years ago, local communities in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli would have no fear going inside forests to collect firewood, pick fruits, and cultivate their farms. Things, however, have changed…
“Powerbaaz”. “Main boss”. No, these descriptions don’t refer to any power-hungry politician or underworld don. It’s how the indigenous Warli people of Maharashtra see their animal god, the Waghoba. The…
In January 2021, a tiger entered Keljhiri, a forest village in Harda district of Madhya Pradesh. Over three days, there were three instances reported of the tiger attacking people, with…
To mine or not to mine – that’s the question that seems to be looming over Chhattisgarh’s Hasdeo Arand forests. While the forests being pristine, rich in biodiversity and ecologically…
Prashant Kumar Chatar is an intermediate student from Dhanurjaypur panchayat, which is on the periphery of the Hadgarh Wildlife Sanctuary where an elephant corridor was identified by the Odisha government.…
Bengaluru, the fourth most populous metropolitan city in India, is a favoured market for real estate developers. This has, consequently, led to concerns about the city's environmental health. Several studies…
One of the key targets of the first draft of the Global Biodiversity Framework published recently is to conserve at least 30% of global land and sea areas as protected…
Over five years ago, farmers groups in Goa proposed that four species – the Indian wild boar (Sus scrofa cristatus), rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), gray langur (Presbytis entellus) and the…
“For a crop loss worth Rs. 15,000 per acre, we receive only Rs. 6,000 in compensation from the forest department. That money is of no use to us; we have…
The impacts of armed conflicts on wildlife globally are underestimated, according to recent research which calls for urgent attention to conflict resiliency in conservation plans for a wide suite of…
A veterinary pain killer drug, nimesulide, has been causing the death of vultures in India, finds a new study published in the latest edition of the international scientific journal, Environmental Science…
About eight percent of the total recorded species of flora and fauna of the world and four of the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots are located in India, according to Global…
The state animal of Chhattisgarh, the wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee) is in danger. Despite all the efforts by the government, the population of wild buffalo is not increasing in…
Institutionalised conservation efforts in India started with the enactment of the Wildlife Protection Act in 1972 and the launch of the Project Tiger - to conserve the apex predator and…
When Terde Yomcha brought Luba home, she was so tiny that she could fit in his hands. Luba is an Asiatic black bear cub—a species threatened by illegal wildlife trade…
On March 16 this year, around ten days before Assam went to polls, routine checks were on at the checkpoint in Ghiladhari in Golaghat district of the eastern state. When…
In the Malnad region of Karnataka that covers the western and the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats, the king cobra is nothing short of a deity. Hooded cobras appear…
In the last week of December 2020, a video of a leopard scaling fences and roaming the streets in the Bagh-e-Mehtab locality near Srinagar, startled people in Kashmir valley. It…
Sasmita Lenka’s journey in environment enforcement – cracking down on pangolin trafficking, clearing illegal aquaculture and mitigating human-elephant conflicts – started out with a burning desire to prove herself on…