“What exactly is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?” I meekly ask, cutting in on my colleague Aniket’s articulate, but jargon-filled explanation about an intriguing project he and his Conservation Behaviour team at the Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) are working on, which involves … Read More
We have no idea what lies frozen in the ice sheets and permafrost of the Arctic where temperatures are rising twice as fast as the rest of the world. Last year in 2020, as the world was reeling from COVID-19, … Read More
As I write this, sitting in Mumbai, one of the most crowded, polluted, and noisiest cities on Earth, an excruciating noise emanating from a drilling machine plays in the background, frustrating me no end. That is not the only man-made … Read More
“To restore stability to our planet, we must restore its biodiversity, the very thing that we’ve removed. It’s the only way out of this crisis we’ve created – we must rewild the world.’ – Sir David Attenborough What if … Read More
An expert’s take on wildlife rescue in India What is it that draws people to scenes of accidents, crimes, and calamities like moths to flames? Those that gather to spectate a person or animal in distress seem to be in … Read More
Ever wondered what fossils might have meant to our ancestors in older times, when the concepts of geology, evolution, and palaeontology were still to be uncovered? The scientific field of palaeontology (study of fossils) was formally established only in the … Read More
Manipulation is a domain that certain parasites have exploited to bizarre degrees. They can literally turn their victim hosts into fully-controlled ‘zombies’ to do their bidding. Call them Frankensteins if you will! Different parasites inject the hosts with highly-specific chemicals … Read More
The threat of wildlife crime has always loomed large over wildlife in India. Be it the hunting and poaching of charismatic, larger mega-fauna such as the tiger and the Indian one-horned rhino, or the lesser-known and lesser protected ungulates and … Read More
Over the past few months, I have been consistently coming across rather disturbing news from all over the world, the headlines for which when read together could pass off for a ‘fictional’ doomsday film plot. But, this is real life. … Read More
As we wrestle with the countless conservation challenges, it becomes all the more clear that the interplay between humans and their natural environment is at the heart of every single environmental issue. Conventional conservation efforts are falling short sans the … Read More