Here is a short article that I had penned for Sanctuary Asia (Feb 2016) when I was fresh out of school, working as a naturalist- helping people interpret and understand the deciduous forests of central India and all that they contain. Here is the story of a goosebump-inducing experience where a pair of courting leopards were chased up a tree by a pack of Asiatic wild dogs on a hot summer day.
Explore the incredible world of the invertebrates that dwell in your backyard in this article; step-calculating ants, wily caterpillars, stronger-than-steel spiders and so on!
Traversing the same trails, living in the same stone rest-houses as Jim Corbett and other shikaris in the Himalayas- in search of the same thing; the tiger. Looking at records from 1925 to our experiences as part of the tiger-monitoring team.
This study yielded 11 new species, 1 new genus and a rediscovery of freshwater crabs after over 100 years! An insight into the ecology and discovery of these remarkably beautiful species in the heart of the UNESCO biodiversity hotspot, the Western Ghats of India.
A typical day on the field in the scorching terai at the peak of summer, here’s a description of some of the many forms of fauna that I would encounter regularly in the forests while part of the tiger-monitoring team.
What should you eat if you are dehydrated in the remote Mishmi Hills of Arunachal Pradesh? I found out the hard way with the help of a local and some purple berries.
While part of the tiger-monitoring team in the terai, we had a lovely field station with a huge expanse of a meadow to the west and surrounded by dense sal and deciduous forests on all the other sides. Here is a brief glimpse into the fauna that was thriving in the area and the tranquility of life in the terai.
Over several thousands of years, sea snakes have undergone characteristic morphological changes in order to aid their life in water with several species spending their entire life-cycles out at sea, right from their birth through their reproduction to their death. Read more to find out how the long process of evolution has shaped them to live where life first began.
An insight into the newly discovered crabs of Western Ghats; read more to see our journey to discovering these incredibly diverse and distinct species; such as the largely arboreal purple tree crabs and the electric pink and vermillion crabs found in laterite crevasses on a windy plateau!
Mumbai has one of the highest densities of leopards in the world (~21/100 sq km) in Mumbai, read more to find out how they coexist in harmony. New research and implemented conservation projects suggest throw light on the elusive behaviour of these big cats in India’s busiest city.