She spread out her arms in glee as she stood on the land she owned. She was happy because this land was now nurturing new generations of a fast-disappearing species of bird – the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard (GIB). Eighty-five-year-old Mangli Devi Bishnoi and other Bishnois of the Khetolai village of Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer District […]
During childhood, he would watch the Great Indian bustards in the grasslands near his home in a small village close to Solapur city in Maharashtra. At that time, he was completely unaware of their sad plight. By the time he grew up and acquired the knowledge and experience to help these birds, they had disappeared […]
The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), one of India’s oldest and largest NGOs, established in 1883, stepped into its 141st year in 2024. Throughout its long history, the organisation has contributed significantly to wildlife research and conservation and continues to do so in the present day. In this interview, Kishor Rithe, the Director of BNHS, […]
The Great Indian Bustard, a bird that once dwelled across large parts of the Indian subcontinent, has now lost over 90% of its range. It is racing towards extinction, with the grasslands of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan being its last remaining home and hope. Even this landscape is now riddled with threats. Outside the […]
Since childhood, birds fascinated Dr. P. Sathiyaselvam. Growing up in a small village in Tamil Nadu, he had the opportunity to experience the bounties of nature all around him. Often, he would play with his friends near rivers, lakes, and ponds, getting close to many feathered visitors in and around these water bodies. Although he did […]
As a child, he was mesmerised by their mischievous ways of frolicking along the banks of the Arasalar River that flowed near his home. For hours, he would observe them efficiently swimming in the river, catching fish, and grooming each other. At that time, he had no inkling that one day, these otters would be […]
I woke up to the rising sun and the melodious calls of the common hawk cuckoo and the Indian pitta – a summer visitor to the region. I was staying at a forest rest house in the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra. Still groggy, I grabbed my camera and quickly left the rest house, determined […]
As the monsoon rains drench one of the last remaining grasslands in Rajasthan, the male of one of India’s fastest-disappearing bird species makes its move to woo the female. It folds its legs and shoots vertically upwards to about 2 to 3 metres above the grass, with its partly open wings fluttering and producing a […]
It was a bright, sunny summer morning. I was waiting, all excited, at the Moharli Safari Gate of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR). I was there to meet the reserve’s new residents—ten gorgeous white-rumped vultures and the BNHS vulture conservation research team stationed there. The vultures had been transported from the Jatayu Conservation Breeding Center […]
They symbolise eternal, unconditional love and inspire timeless tales of devotion, passion, poetry, art, and architecture. They are believed to be harbingers of good fortune whose presence indicates the sound health of wetland ecosystems. They are the sarus cranes, the world’s tallest flying birds. However, these birds we associate with all things positive are no […]
