By Priya Ranganathan The landscape is a myriad of colours, pulsing with life, dazzling, radiant. A burst of chaos amidst a sea of sand and Prosopis. My nostrils flare to absorb the unfamiliar mixture of smells, from camel hide to tanned leather to sweetmeats to sweaty horse to cattle droppings that litter the sandy soil….
Field stories: Maṅgana kāyile sanśōdhane (Research on Monkey Fever)
Shivamogga is a district of Karnataka which is known as the rice bowl of the state. Agricultural land covers 32% of the entire area of the district. It is one of the areas affected by the Monkey Fever or Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD). KFD is a tick-borne viral haemorrhagic disease which is caused by Kyasanur…
‘Garh’, Mahua, Its People and Few Questions
By Abhijit Dey ‘Now everyone enters the forest by themselves to collect Mahua (flowers). They divided the trees like this is mine, that one yours. There was a time when the entire village used to go to collect Mahua. Those days are lost, those days have gone…’ …
Kannapuram Cattle Market – learnings from an 800 Year Old Institution
By Rathnavel Pandian The Kannapuram annual cattle market or Shandy (Sandhai in Tamil) takes place close to two famous and old temples – Vikramacholeswarar temple built by the King Vikrama Chola in early 12th century AD and the Maariamman temple at Kannapuram village in Tiruppur district of Tamil Nadu. The market, primarily for the sale…
A diary’s page from the field
By Ovee Thorat In all of Banni I can trust this guy completely. He was introduced to me by a researcher friend of mine who received a lot of help from him in time of need, help which was provided without expecting anything in return. She needed to take soil cores deep inside the hardened…
A ride through southern Bastar – a paradise taken hostage
By Vikram Aditya The evening skies turned crimson as the darkness crept in, the traffic died out and I was surrounded by an eerie stillness. The deafening silence was only punctuated by the croaks of frogs in the stream below the bridge, and the calls of cicadas echoing from the forest. I was on the Sukma-Konta highway,…
Rewilding the Arctic Fox – The Dovrefjell Breeding Centre
By Anjan Katna Norway has been at the forefront of the Arctic Fox rewilding effort. Arctic Foxes have been facing threats due to rapid land-cover change, climate change, corresponding range expansions and hunting. These foxes are important species for the ecosystem and their numbers in the past had reduced to just one breeding pair in…
Of Land and Rights
by Nita Shashidharan “O! Who does this land belong to my friend? Are they rich or poor, all the same or different? Does it belong to us humans, or the other animals, or even water who may take over the land? I walked in my neighbourhood, and what did I see, huge houses, and…
How the cyber revolution is fueling wildlife poaching: The Case of the Pangolin
By Vikram Aditya Illegal wildlife trade forms the third largest illicit trade market globally. Trafficking (smuggling) of body parts and products made from rare and threatened wildlife species is a highly lucrative business for organized cartels, who exploit poor and vulnerable forest dwelling communities for their criminal interests. This is pushing endangered species into extinction…
My pet crow: a short story
By Obaiah B One fine day I was having lunch in one corner of the office canteen. A shiny black feathered bird landed next to me and folded its large wings. It was fascinating to watch this intelligent bird in action from such a close distance. Most of us believe that crows are black in…
Avian Diversity in human-dominated ecosystems in and around Delhi
By Anjan Katna Delhi, the capital city of India, is home to multiple water bodies. While some of these wetlands have been purposefully created, like the Yamuna Biodiversity Park, some came into existence by being in the periphery of various civic projects. For instance, the Okhla Bird Sanctuary was created after the Okhla Barrage was…
Visibility of Water Infrastructure
By Rinan Shah Urban networks in the contemporary city are largely hidden. They are opaque, invisible and disappear underground. This tends to hide social relations and power mechanisms enacted through them [1]. Water infrastructure is a good example of such networks which makes water truly invisible by turning it into something which is readily available…
ATREE Young Researchers Network 