Walking for Tiger Conservation: An Occupancy Survey of the Satpura-Melghat Tiger Corridor

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What is a corridor?

In the sphere of conservation biology, a wildlife corridor is a strip of habitat that connects two wildlife source populations and serves as a movement path for wild animals in search of resources such as food, habitat and mates. In a larger landscape, consisting of many source populations, one can have a network of corridors, connecting pairs of source populations so that they are connected directly or indirectly. Together these populations constitute a metapopulation.

For several … Read More

Old Dog, New Tricks: Methods to Count Dhole Numbers

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The fundamental metric that we need for assessing and monitoring the status of threatened or endangered species is the population size, i.e., we are typically interested in finding out how many individuals of a species currently exist. Unfortunately, estimating these numbers is a daunting task because most endangered animals– especially those that live in dense tropical forests– are rare, secretive and elusive. For animals that have individual markings (like the stripes of a tiger, spots of a cheetah, rosettes of … Read More

The Warli and their Waghoba

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Big cats have found cultural representation across their natural ranges. These representations are manifested in the form of art, kinship relations, taboos and even worship. This can be seen with regard to the Were-jaguars that are an intrinsic part of various Mesoamerican cultures as well as the cat deities famously worshiped by Egyptians. Closer to home, the Warlis, an indigenous community in Maharashtra, also worship a big cat deity; Waghoba. The Warli have a long history of sharing space … Read More

Bear knocked dead by train on Chanda Fort-Gondia line, Maharashtra

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CHANDRAPUR, MAHARASHTRA: A full-grown sloth bear was knocked dead by a speeding train in Chichpalli forest range during the wee hours of Sunday, August 1, 2021. Officials said that a female bear, aged around three and half years, was crossing the track near railway poll no. 1198/9 in the Mul-Chichpalli stretch of Chanda Fort Gondia railway line, when the accident took place.

The bear suffered multiple fractures in the hip and hind legs and died after creeping a few metres … Read More

Eye-browed Thrush at Mumbai’s Magical Green Valley Park

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Even as our country’s urban sprawl engulfs surrounding wilderness like giant hundred-tentacled octopuses, there are still little pockets of paradise that hold out against the concrete invasion. These beautiful city forests have much to offer; not only to the local residents and wildlife but also to wildlife enthusiasts from afar.

One such little pocket of paradise is Green Valley Park in Navi Mumbai. This 50 hectare (1/2 sq. km.) patch of woodland is tucked away amidst a leafy street, barely … Read More

Death of a Mother Chameleon

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It was a Sunday morning. My friend and I were riding towards Suryamal from Wada-Nashik road. The scenic beauty made us nostalgic and as we got closer to our destination, we saw something on the road. It was a chameleon. Unfortunately, our first sighting of our trip turned out to be that of a dead reptile, victim of a speeding vehicle. It was probably dead for approximately 3 to 4 hours. What was saddening was the chameleon was gravid – … Read More

The State of Wildlife and Protected areas in Maharashtra – News and information from the PA update 1996-2015

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Book review

‘The state of Wildlife and Protected areas in Maharashtra – News and information from the PA update: 1996-2015’.
Edited by: Pankaj Sekhsaria
Publishers: Duleep Matthai Nature Conservation Trust, Kalpavriksh, and Rainfed Books, 2019
Price: INR 400/-
Reviewed by: Santosh Shintre

Nature conservation is perhaps one of the more successful cultural movements in the history of humans, and has led to the setting aside of significant areas of the planet for nature. Presently, close to 15% of the Earth’s … Read More

Kite Flying — A Death Sentence

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It was a pleasant Sunday evening, during the 1st week of June 2020. I was enjoying the nature trail inside our lush green campus of CMPDI Nagpur, a habitat with more than 70 species of birds. While on the walk, I was left horrified after spotting a juvenile Shikra, hanging by its neck. This unfortunate bird was tangled in a nylon thread used for kite flying. Despite the National Green Tribunal (NGT)’s ban on using Chinese manja (kite strings made … Read More

Flamingo Spectacle in Navi Mumbai, April 2020

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Mumbai residents were offered a breathtaking visual treat last week when hundreds of thousands of migratory Lesser Flamingos (Phoeniconaias minor) flocked to the creeks of Navi Mumbai.

Every year, thousands of flamingos migrate to Mumbai. Their numbers peak in hotspots like Navi Mumbai creek, Thane creek, Bhandup Pumping Station and Sewri.

The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) said there has been a 25% cent increase in flamingo migration since 2019, when 120,000 (1.2 lakh) visited. This year, an estimated 150,000 … Read More

Wolves Chased by Dogs, Pune Grasslands

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Grasslands are always neglected and, more often than not, deemed to be ‘wastelands’. In reality, grasslands are a treasure trove of biodiversity. And it is in these spaces that one of India’s endangered species thrives – the Indian Wolf (Canis lupus pallipes). The wolf has adapted to living in close proximity to humans, as it gets an advantage of being able to prey on livestock or domestic fowl.

But with this benefit comes a bane, in the form of … Read More

A Free Meal — Conflict between Wolves and Feral Dogs

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My passion is to highlight the plight of grasslands, and to work towards the conservation of these vast, neglected spaces.

On one of the occasions when my friends and I were in the grasslands near Pune, we were observing a few wolves from a distance. They had killed a Chinkara. However, stray dogs from the nearby settlement showed up in no time, running towards the pack of wolves. I have observed that these wolves are quite shy of human presence … Read More

Living with Leopards – Conflict or Coexistence?

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Nayan Khanolkar first chanced upon Luna the leopardess in 2014 while monitoring the man-animal conflict in Mumbai. Back then she was an almost grown up leopard cub roaming in Aarey Colony with her mother. Over the years he and his team have trailed Luna and watched her become an adult, independent leopardess having grown and thrived in an urban landscape. She learnt and understood the human ways enough to manoeuvre around them.

She knew that where humans roamed during the … Read More

Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphins off Mumbai Coast

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To be able to observe dolphins from one’s balcony or from shore is a possibility for most of us in Mumbai. There must have been a time when Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphins (Sousa plumbea) roamed this coastal stretch in large numbers. Today they are scattered in small pockets, one of which is the bay off Raj Bhavan, Malabar Hill.

Other locations in Bombay, where these dolphins are seen is Worli, off Chowpatty in South Mumbai, Marine Drive, Sassoon Docks, and … Read More

The Hornbills of Malabar Hill, Mumbai

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It’s been over a year since the Indian Grey Hornbill (Ocyceros birostris) decided to make their presence conspicuous in the Malabar Hill area of South Mumbai, just as the peacocks of ‘Doongerwadi’ and the Raj Bhavan have made theirs for some time now.

These ‘urban hornbills’, as my friend and ace birder Shashank Dalvi calls them, are seen mostly at dawn and dusk flying around from tree to tree as they are mostly arboreal in nature.

The male has a … Read More

Carnivores as Co-owners of our Lands

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Among the range of attributes that represent India is the little-known, seldom-acknowledged diversity of carnivore species it harbors. The country has 23% of the world’s terrestrial carnivore species. While popular discourse typically links large carnivores to forested reserves or large inviolate spaces, many of India’s carnivore species have historically shared spaces and adapted to using human modified landscapes. A recent study by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society-India, Centre for Wildlife Studies, Foundation for Ecological Research And Learning, University of … Read More