Wildlife watchers love a good field guide. It helps them identify plants and animals in the field, and tick off long lists of species they wish to see in the wild. And there are people that walk the wilds, not … Read More
Tarun Nair is a conservation biologist with an affinity for crocodilians and rivers. Leading the Wildlife Conservation Trust’s (WCT’s) Makara Programme, he works along North-Central Indian riverscapes that harbour the last remaining populations of the Critically Endangered gharial, a fish-eating … Read More
Bony and dishevelled, Kanta Kamde stands barefoot outside her house. I stand with her in silence, arms wrapped around my chest, gaze lowered. It feels like a condolence visit. Then she speaks, “We had run out of firewood. The cooking… Read More
In 2018, WCT President Dr. Anish Andheria sent me to the Melghat Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra, to witness the life and work of frontline forest staff, so that I could be their voice. With each of the forest guards… Read More
Bramhapuri, Maharashtra: A nippy November night in 2019. Kishor Bansod is circled by a rapt audience of more than a hundred. A mic in one hand and a bucket of water in another, he pours into a one metre high… Read More
Sea turtles have graced the oceans for millions of years, evolving resilience to countless challenges. But the dawn of the Anthropocene has brought newer, deadlier threats: millions of tons of plastic, destruction of nesting beaches, light pollution that disorients hatchlings … Read More
Every time I see a blue tiger moth, my mind travels to the forest of Matheran, a pocket-sized but incredibly biodiverse hill station a stone’s throw from Mumbai. Every time, I relish the memory of a crisp January morning spent … Read More
September of 2016. A brief break from the rains, a bit of sunshine. Mumbai’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park shimmered with various shades of green. Being a naturalist partial to the understory, I found myself in the Nagla Block, the northern … Read More
On rocky shores, we walk past them, oblivious. Tide pools are microcosms of the sea, teeming with life. From just a few inches to a few feet in depth and diameter, these shallow pools of seawater are found in the … Read More
Nachiket Kelkar is an ecologist working towards identifying ways to both conserve endangered riverine biodiversity and secure livelihoods of fisherfolk. He believes in interdisciplinary science and conservation approaches that may enable both entities to coexist, even as they remain affected … Read More