Conservation

At 70 km. long, the Siachen Glacier is the longest glacier in the Karakoram Range. It is the second-longest glacier in the world’s non-polar regions and is often called the Third Pole.  Studies have shown that the glacier is receding at an alarming rate, estimated at 110 m. per year. It costs Pakistan one million USD a day and India, two million USD a day, to maintain their troops in Siachen.

Darkness was yet to descend. In the last few minutes of daylight, Rajesh and I searched for spiders along the edges of the tea garden when the phone rang and the manager on the line informed us of a king cobra that had entered the factory area. More likely a rat snake, was our first thought. Rushing to the spot, we saw a crowd gathered around a tall machine covered with a polythene sheet.

India’s arid lands and dry grasslands are possibly the most undervalued of all wildlife habitats. Agriculture, irrigation schemes, pesticides, overgrazing, exotic species and mining operations are among a long list of threats facing these areas. While some areas that fall in the purview of the Protected Area network have achieved some degree of protection, there are several areas crucial to birds, that…

The shift from chemical to natural strategies is being documented by two young field researchers, Zeeshan A. Mirza and Rajesh V. Sanap who are conducting a pre- and post-monsoon rapid biodiversity survey in Asia's largest organic plantation.

When the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) set camera traps in Thailand’s Western Forest Complex in 2011, the results were surprising – and underlined the importance of the sprawling, rugged wilderness on the Thai-Myanmar border.

April 2012: Halfway across the Dagwan river, I turned gingerly to collect my camera bag from Qasim Wani, long-time friend and forest guard, and could scarcely believe my eyes; there in plain view not 50 m. from us was a Himalayan black bear and her two six-month-old cubs. The three bruins were negotiating the swift, glacial waters upstream from us with practiced ease.

December 2003: I sat in a tree overlooking a dry nullah littered with lion tracks. The tethered goat was disappointingly quiet, feeding quietly instead of calling out to attract the lions. There was no time to look for another site, so I decided to wait till dark, with Ravi and the team waiting 500 m. away in the vehicle.

October 1998: Gir happens to be the single largest tract of forest in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat State and has become virtually synonymous with the Asiatic lion, Panthera leo persica. The lion is believed to have entered India from Persia at least 6,000 years ago and was present in large numbers in Northern and Western India in the bygone years.

October 1998: More than two decades ago conservationists who knew how bleak the future of the Gir lions was, had recommended that a small population be translocated to Madhya Pradesh or Rajasthan. The idea was to avoid "keeping all the eggs in one basket."

April 2012: Sushil Kumar Daila, Divisional Forest Officer, Mangaldai Wildlife Division, recounts a recent rhino poaching incident in Assam’s Orang National Park and highlights some positive developments that will help secure the park.