Polker Kuttan, a 72-year-old Toda tribal from the Nilgiris, is like a local weather expert - he can predict the onset or delay of the seasonal rains and even the…
India’s lion census, supposed to be conducted in the first week of May, has been deferred because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But there is little doubt that the number of…
In April, amidst several gloomy developments related to COVID-19, there was one announcement that should have brought cheer to many farmers of Maharashtra, especially non-irrigated areas such as Marathwada and…
The temperature was touching -15 °C as the sun set in Tsaba valley in Ladakh. We were bunched inside a tiny bunker, all seven of us. Making the most of…
On April 26, 2020, when the Dhemaji Boat Clinic was on its way to conduct a routine health camp in Pakhoriguri - one of the 2500 saporis or riverine islands…
On a sunny afternoon of March 18, 2020, while lost in his dreams, Sukaldhar Yadav was jolted awake by an urgent knocking on his door. "My nephew is down with…
Wildlife volunteers associated with the municipal corporation of Indian metropolis Bengaluru in Karnataka, are receiving a flurry of calls from citizens to clear bats from trees, even as leading conservationists…
In India’s Himachal Pradesh, in the western Himalayas, Anuradha is doubled down into the soils of her farmland in Sudher village, donning a dhattu—the term used in the hills to…
Tranquil meditative profiles of Buddhist figures, which had been carved into the red sand stone cliffs centuries ago, watch the Betwa River languidly curve around hills of green. In the…
Nilesh Nakhawa was out in the sea in his purse seiner for eight days. On March 23, the 41-year-old fisherman landed at Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, in the western state of…
As the sun moved above the horizon dividing the sky and sea, five boats approached the coast at Sana Nolia Nuagaon, a fishing village in Ganjam district of eastern Indian…
A lesser flameback woodpecker drums a tree trunk while a pair of brown-headed barbets collect berries for their nest, a shikra swoops down on a gecko and then feasts on…
Indian scientists are building a DNA database for red panda populations in the country, even as a report warns of “serious threats” to the bushy-tailed and chestnut-furred animals. The main…
Even as modern science grapples with the rapidly declining bee population, we could look back and take a lesson on sustainability from the ancient culture of the adivasis (the first…
“A tiger was here…and it was not very long ago,” exclaimed Dharm Singh Gurjar looking at pugmarks on the ground, just a kilometre away from village Khohara, on the outskirts…
Balaji Viswanathan, chief executive officer of a Bengaluru-based start-up, was holidaying with his family at the Alappuzha beach in Kerala in the first week of March when his son met…
Farida Sheikh remembers her house in the slums in Ahmedabad feeling like a furnace, where summer temperatures have reached up to 50 degrees Celsius. But for the last four years,…
For believers of Vastu Shastra and Feng Shui, the kachua (turtles or tortoises) attracts good fortune. Decorative items, rings and pendants depicting these creatures are common talismans and some homes…
Then a range forest officer with Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR) in Kerala, Raju K. Francis still remembers that distant afternoon in 1994, when he arrested elusive forest brigand Aruvi from…
A bright-yellow bird zipped over our heads while we stood at the fringe of a field nestled in a forest. “Aa aamtiki che. (This is an oriole),” said Pratik, pointing…