At the heart of a multitude of Wildlife Conservation Trust’s (WCT’s) projects lies science. Science drives and underscores the organisation’s approach to its broad and diverse range of conservation work, be it research, capacity building, conflict mitigation or advocacy. Photo … 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
Marvel ghaas hona… usko zyada janwar khaate, isko nahi khaate (Marvel is the favourite grass of wild herbivores, not this one),” Keshav Jamunkar tells me, as he poses for a picture in a thicket of sorghum grass, over 1.8 m. … Read More
The fight against wildlife crime is an uphill battle all the way. Law enforcement authorities are often left breathless trying to cope with the growing scale and ever-changing modus operandi of wildlife criminals, whose destructive handiwork has led wildlife crime … Read More
In Late Stone Age Europe, 20,000 years ago, a teenage hunter is tossed over a cliff by a bison. He survives the fall, just fracturing his foot. On his way back home, he is attacked by a pack of wolves, … Read More
“Every contact leaves a trace” says the ‘Locard’s Exchange Principle’, a simple and powerful premise on which forensic science rests. Any scene of crime, even wildlife crime, is replete with different forms of evidence waiting for a trained, forensic eye … Read More
“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
On a rainy July evening in the Kanha National Park in Central India, forest guard M. P. Kartikey was returning to the anti-poaching camp after patrolling his beat, when he accidentally came uncomfortably close to sloth bears – a female … Read More
The Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) recently concluded a year-long occupancy survey for four large carnivores in the vital Sahyadri-Konkan corridor. Wildlife biologist Girish Punjabi, who is in charge of the project, speaks to WCT’s Conservation Writer Rizwan Mithawala about valuable … Read More
Extraordinary sense of smell, limitless zeal, and love for the job. With these unique traits, dogs have been assisting humans for thousands of years. As we grapple with poaching, forest fragmentation, and other human activities that harm wildlife and ecosystems, … Read More