Noor Mohammad travels around Rajasthan holding live street performances with his ‘pet’. With a damru (two-headed drum) in one hand and a stick in the other, he and his ‘bear’…
With a complete ban on wildlife trade of Indian species, there has been a surge in demand in India, for exotic species from different parts of the world, noted the…
For the past two decades, the catch and trade of seahorses has been banned in India. However, a new study reveals that 13 million seahorses are estimated to have been…
India is a mega-biodiverse nation. It is home to 7-8% of the recorded species of the world. Its marine ecosystems are equally biodiverse: of the 32 animal phyla known to…
When we think of wildlife, we might picture tigers moving among tall sal trees, crocodiles swimming in rivers, elephants gathered around waterholes. We often only think of pristine forests; we…
Almost a hundred years ago, conservationist Jim Corbett rescued the people of Rudraprayag in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand, from the terror of a 'man-eater' that had claimed at least…
The global illegal trade in wildlife is worth upto US$ 19 billion annually, and is the fourth largest illicit market after drugs, counterfeit, and human trafficking. On June 21, 2020,…
As India continues the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, its impact is seen on the wildlife in western Rajasthan. The state has witnessed a rise…
Hardly three months have gone by since a special protection force assigned by the administration of Union Territory of Lakshadweep seized 1716 sea cucumbers from an uninhabited island named Suhali. Weighing 882…
During the first week of April 2020, the Rajasthan forest department nabbed four people suspected to have killed hundreds of chinkara (the Indian gazelle) and other protected species over the…
Leaving his stall at the Golbazar Maharajganj Fish Market in Agartala, the vendor headed out toward another shop, a hovel really, tucked between the market’s boundary wall and a stack…
Nearly seventy years after it went extinct in India, the cheetah is set to make a comeback. Reversing its own earlier stand, the Supreme Court of India, which in 2013…
A latest analysis of the forest and wildlife clearances recommended by expert panels of the environment ministry, in the first six months of 2019, has found that most projects seeking…
On the evening of June 24, 2015, members of the Konkan Cetacean Research Team received an ominous call. A blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), the largest animal in the world, was…
With tigers, lions and elephants grabbing the limelight in India’s wildlife conservation sector, other mammals such as leopards usually remain in the shadows. But they face a similar, if not…
The Waghoba temple in Mumbai's Aarey Milk Colony houses an idol of a big cat. Resembling a tiger, the idol is worshipped by tribal communities living in the area. A…
Days after it was satellite tagged and released, an Amur falcon ‘Manipur’, eponymously named after the northeast Indian state bordering Myanmar, was allegedly shot down by unknown miscreants at a…
The primary source of agarwood and one of the world’s most expensive trees, the evergreen agar tree (Aquilaria malaccensis Lam.) is a step away from extinction in the wild. In…
This is the second article in a two-part series on poaching in Jaldapara National Park. In Part One, interviews with former poachers revealed the inner workings of wildlife trafficking in…
This is the first article in a two-part series on poaching in Jaldapara National Park. Part Two (published on 28-May) looks at prevention and enforcement efforts. JALDAPARA NATIONAL PARK, India…
