It is hard to imagine large swathes of forests on land made up of anything other than plants, isn’t it? Just thinking of giant mushrooms sprouting from the earth, dwarfing everything else by a long shot seems like a scene … Read More
My new home overlooks an old cemetery. Surrounding the gold-plated finial atop the dome of a Sufi’s mausoleum in the centre of the cemetery are crowns of palm trees, interspersed with a mix of natives and exotics. Surrounded by a … 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
Periyar’s maintenance engineers After walking the length and breadth of Periyar, Dr. Anish Andheria writes with both knowledge and passion about the array of wildlife that has made this tropical forest a home. From termites and dracos, to tigers and … Read More
I could smell the salty sea in her heavy breath, filled with exhaustion and the quiet pain of giving up. A full-grown Olive Ridley sea turtle, she was washed ashore a beach in Dahanu, a seaside town over a hundred … Read More
“The lifting of the snake’s head had caught my eye and it was not until the head had been raised some two or three feet from the ground and the hood expanded that I realised it was a hamadryad. It … Read More
Conservation and Science Writer with WCT, Purva Variyar, and naturalist Gaurav Shirodkar talk about an obscure, yet enchanting destination in Maharashtra called the Lonar crater. Extra-terrestrial origins, unique soda lake, rare microbial life, and thriving forest, they discuss it all! … 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
On the bank of a gushing river in the forests of India’s Western Ghats, under the black velvet dome shimmering with countless stars, a tree lights up with flashes of neon, and goes dark again. On the opposite bank, another … Read More