Pangolin smuggling to China thrives as rhino poaching declines in Assam
The global focus on the smuggling of rhino horns and tiger parts from India to China has led to a drop in smuggling, but that has been replaced by a…
Mongabay series: Almost Famous Species
Our Almost Famous Species series is a take off from Mongabay.com's Almost Famous Animals series, both created "in the hope that familiarity will help generate concern and action for these under-appreciated species". Through the series, we'd like to introduce to you India's gamut of invertebrates, birds and marine flora and fauna, which perhaps don't get as much attention as our more popular big cats and elephants.
Out of India: The illegal trade routes for pangolin trafficking
Pangolins from all over India are being killed for scales which are funnelled through the country’s northeastern states to Myanmar, and then on to China’s Yunnan province. But, increasingly, live…
The Tamilian Warrior becomes a state symbol
The southern state of Tamil Nadu has recently declared Tamil Yeoman (Cirrochroa thais) as its state butterfly to symbolise its rich natural and cultural heritage, in a move aimed at…
An SOS call for the ‘Tiger of Kaveri’
The orange-finned mahseer or hump-backed mahseer, believed to be endemic to the Kaveri river that flows through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, has been an enigma for anglers…
Hidden cameras reveal six colour variants of the Asiatic golden cat
Cameras placed across protected and community forests in the Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh recorded six different coat colours of the Asiatic golden cat (Catopuma temminckii). In all, the cameras…
When and from where did black pepper come to India?
A new study has, for the first time, thrown light on when and from where black pepper (Piper nigrum) had come to India. The species arrived into India from Southeast…
Indian research network on horseshoe crab takes wing as the living fossil battles threats
In a mangrove clump in Balasore in coastal Odisha, a youth gingerly snips away at the tangles of a fishing net around an upturned crab-like struggling creature, as it desperately…
Communities join hands to keep alive the hoolock gibbon’s song
The call of the western hoolock gibbon, a series of whoops, hoots and tones that rise in a crescendo, is background music in the villages of Meghalaya. Mornings begin with this…
Female seagrass flowers uncoil to reach pollen in undersea saga
For the underwater-dwelling tape grass Enhalus acoroides, pollination is an adventure where female flowers have their work cut out. The pinkish-green male flowers produce plenty of pollen, encased in long…
Creatures from Mumbai’s shore and their housing stories
For a city that is fixated with its housing, real estate opportunities and acquiring homes with a view, finding a space to call your own in Mumbai carries its own…
