(March 29, 2019) A major carbon sink underwater, seagrass ecosystems need to be understood better if they are to be conserved.Tape seagrass at Henry LawrenceRecent dire warnings from the World Meteorological Organisation say that impacts of global warming are accelerating and driving global temperatures to dangerous levels. At around the same time, the International Energy Agency also reported that carbon emissions in 2018 were up by 1.7% due to growth in energy use.The carbon levels which were 357 ppm in 1993 a...

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(March 26, 2019) Despite tough conditions under which they work, they plod on and face the most daunting prospects with calmness and courage.WCS-India/HyTiCoS team setting up camera-trapTemperatures are a blazing 40 deg C. The dry, deciduous forest landscape is stark and offers not much shade from the sun’s relentless scorching. Often it feels like the hot air from a hair dryer is directed onto the face, in the words of one volunteer. Added to that there is the terrain which comes with flat grounds neatly ...

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(March 22, 2019) A young Bishnoi strives to raise awareness on the plight of the GIB and other desert species.Great Indian Bustard © WikiThe 17th largest desert in the world, the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, which is 10% of India’s biomass, is home to the Bishnoi community. They have been around since over 500 years ago. This community is extraordinary, because unlike any other, the main objective of this community is conserving Nature.It was founded by Lord Jambeshwar, who is believed to be an incarnati...

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(March 15, 2019) ग्रेट हॉर्नबिल: एका आगळ्यावेगळ्या पक्ष्याच्या दुनियेची सफर-पूजा यशवंत पवाररानावनांत भटकताना आपण निसर्गाच्या जादुई दुनियेमध्ये रममाण झालो नाही तर नवलंच. कित्येक वेगेवेगळे, विविध रंगांचे, आकारांचे प्राणी-पक्षी, त्यांचे नानाविध आवाज, सवयी, इत्यादी गोष्टींमुळे प्रत्येक क्षणी नवीनचं अनुभूती असते.पक्षी निरीक्षणाचा छंद जोपासताना, वन्यजीव संशोधन करताना अनेक जंगलात भ्रमंती करायची संधी मला मिळाली. वनशास्त्राची पदवी मिळाल्यानंतर उच्च शिक्षणासाठी वन्यजीव संशोधन आणि संवर्धन हा विषय मी निवडला. ग्रेट हॉर्नबिल ...

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(March 12, 2019) Meet Sanjay Sondhi, a conservationist working to spread awareness among communities and children. Human-leopard conflicts in the past few years have been all over the news in recent times. “Leopard Runs Loose, Terrorizing Residents”, “Leopard injures four after rampage in village in India”, “Leopard deaths at a five-year high in the country” and so on. Conservationists who are trying to mitigate such encounters have a different tale to say. ...

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(March 08, 2019) Happy Women’s Day!A tribal widowed woman with ten children, who owned nothing more than a shack in the Nagarahole forest, has gone on to be honoured as ‘super farmer’ after relocating outside. In her message of gratitude, the woman Daasi, notes how she was a ‘nothing’ inside the forest who now feels proud of her achievement and hopes more women around her will be inspired by her work.Today we see more and more women achievers, be it the defence minister or a tribal ...

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(March 05, 2019) A forest officer speaks of his love story with the birds.Arijit BanerjeeRaptors are handsome, and garden birds like flycatchers and others are very pretty, but “nothing can beat our national bird. The Peacock is god’s own,” is how Arijit Banerjee puts it. Seeing the brilliantly coloured bird in a dry deciduous forest can be breathtaking, he adds. He is an IFS officer who is an avid bird watcher whose images feature in some of the major birder portals.Watching birds is both a re...

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