Every year on 31 July, the world observes International Rangers Day to honour the men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting our natural heritage, and to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of … Read More
Regulated jeep safaris are not the principal cause of human-tiger conflict. When properly managed, they are instruments that finance conservation infrastructure, sustain rural livelihoods, and incentivise coexistence. Photo: Dr. Anish Andheria Conflict and Coexistence The debate around vehicle-bound (jeep) safaris … Read More
Imagine standing in an Indian forest a little over a century ago. There was a very real chance that somewhere in those woods, a tiger was watching you. Photo credit: Raza Kazmi Personal Collection At the turn of the twentieth … Read More
The peacock tarantula, also known as the Gooty tarantula – because in 1899 one was inadvertently transported in a wood pile to a railway timber yard in Gooty, Andhra Pradesh, where it was later sighted, leading to the species’ discovery … Read More
It was February 2014, and winter had begun to fade in Banni. We moved through the rocky tracts of Kutchh, small undulating hills dotted with sparse clumps of euphorbia. The only other green came from patches of the invasive plant … Read More
Recently, a tiger that entered Gujarat from Madhya Pradesh and settled down in the Ratanmahal Wildlife Sanctuary has been in the news. It has been widely reported as the return of the tiger to Gujarat after nearly 30 years. However, … Read More
Muscular. Powerful. Strong. These are some of the adjectives that immediately come to mind when one thinks of the gaur. But these are not the adjectives that Dr. Himanshu Joshi, an experienced wildlife veterinarian, attributes to a particular gaur he … Read More
In the last couple of years, our suspicions about the presence of the endangered fishing cat in the river floodplains across north Bihar were confirmed when news reports of this elusive species began to emerge from various localities in the … Read More
Threats Loom Large Over the Sarus Crane “We found only three nests this breeding season. Out of the five chicks, only two have survived. One of the breeding Sarus Crane pairs, which lost its chicks earlier in the season, laid … Read More
What animals come to your mind when you think of charismatic mammals of the Central Indian forests? The usual answer would be tiger, leopard, dhole, hard-ground barasingha, and gaur. With the recent return of elephants to Central India, some would … Read More
Great adaptability. Highly drought and disease tolerant. Deep-rooted. Fast growing. Hardy. Aggressive. ‘Mad’. Ideal traits in a plant evolved to live in hot and arid regions. But not so ideal for the ecosystems where the very plant is alien and … Read More
In the real world, a world in which biodiversity and ecosystems need protecting by humans from humans, and I can’t stress this enough, for the very survival of us, humans, wildlife conservation has become a necessity. Yet, conservation is approached … Read More
What happens when some of the brightest minds in wildlife conservation from across the country gather in one of India’s most stunning tiger landscapes? Magic! The Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) recently held its annual review meet at the serene MPT … Read More
Mapping Past and Present of the Satpura-Melghat Corridor Betul and Hoshangabad Forest Divisions. Chances are, those reading this would not have come across these names, and the few who have would perhaps find it difficult to put a finger on … Read More
About my BITS Design Community Project at ‘Wildlife Conservation Trust’. A journey into forests, villages, and the invisible lines of privilege in between. For many of us, the idea of wildlife conservation begins and ends within the boundaries of a … Read More