The Indian Star Tortoise are found in two distinct geographical areas in India. Northwestern India (Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh) and eastern and southern India (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, eastern Karnataka, Odisha). There is also a third population found in Sri Lanka. The local environmental conditions play an important role in moulding the characteristics of […]
Rare Orange Bat Spotted in Chhatisgarh’s Kanger National Park
A rare orange coloured bat was seen in Chhattisgarh’s Kanger Valley National Park. The bat species is the Painted Woolly Bat/Painted Bat or what is commonly called the ‘Komola-badami Chamchika’ in Bengali because of its bright orange colours. This is the first time the species has been spotted in Chhattisgarh. Kerivoula picta as it is […]
Whale Sharks can Recover from Injuries in Weeks, Re-grow Fins
A new study has for the first time explored the extraordinary rate at which the world’s largest fish, the endangered whale shark, can recover from its injuries. The findings reveal that lacerations and abrasions, increasingly caused through collisions with boats, can heal in a matter of weeks and researchers found evidence of partially removed dorsal […]
Does the Ganges River Dolphin Benefit from the New Dolphin Safari?
There is a different Ganga for everyone. For the fisherman, it is his source of daily sustenance. For the septuagenarian, her gateway to Nirvana. From the washerman’s daily grime to the sins known only to the one eager to cleanse his soul, the River Ganga is at work 24×7 washing away the dirt and reviving […]
This Device can Detect the Presence of Animals from Thin Air
Most people who go on safaris will know that sighting a wild animal in the jungle is not easy. You might roam for hours without even a trace of a tiger or a leopard or a rhino. It is especially harder for field researcher who spends hours and days inside the forests and can still […]
New Climber Discovered from the Western Ghats
A new and rare species of climber has been discovered in the Western Ghats in Idukki district of Kerala. The discovery was made by a team of scientists from the Jawahar Lal Nehru Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute. The climber belongs to the same family as Colocasia, the popular indoor plants with broad heart-shaped […]
Anti-poaching Camp for the Sea Cucumbers of Lakshadweep
An archipelago of 36 palm-laden coral islands nestled amidst the endless Arabian sea, Lakshadweep embodies a precious heritage of ecology and culture and forms India’s smallest Union Territory. In July 2020 it also became home to the world’s first Sea Cucumber Conservation Reserve. Sea cucumbers convert decomposing organic matter into inorganic nutrients which are sparse […]
Studying Human-Animal Interaction During the Lockdown ‘Anthropause’
From the moment the lockdown began in India in March 2020, social media was abuzz with animal sightings across the country in urban areas. From the civet seen in Kerala to the leopards visiting colonies in Chandigarh and flamingoes in Mumbai, it seemed the lack of people on roads made animals bolder to venture beyond […]
A Gharial travels 1100 km from Nepal to India
The river Gandak in India is called Narayani in Nepal, but ask one Ghariyal, and the trans-boundary differences just merge into one long river path which it took to travel for more than 1000 kilometres from Nepal to India. According to the Wildlife Trust of India, biologist Subrat Behera working on the Gharial Recovery Project […]
Gujarat Now Has 674 Asiatic Lions…Or Is It?
The Asiatic Lion census of 2020 in Gujarat’s Gir National Park, the last bastion of this lion species in the world, was replaced by ‘Poonam Avalokan’ or full moon night observation due to Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown. Carried out on June 5 and June 6 the observation found 674 lions now in Gujarat which […]
A Rare Dragonfly is Photographed by chance After 90 Years
Ravindran Kamatchi and S Gopala Krishnan were out birding in Kallar Garden in Coimbatore when they saw an unusual dragonfly near a stream. The two began clicking photos of the dragonfly enamoured by its bigger than usual size. Later, they posted the pictures on a WhatsApp group ‘Odonates of the Western Ghats’ only to find […]