In India’s Sundarbans, communities shrink as their island sinks
MOUSUNI ISLAND, West Bengal - Ashida watched the rising tide fearfully. Lifting her baby son onto her hip, the 24-year-old took a break from her morning duties and stood outside…
Great Indian bustard eggs being collected to kick-start captive breeding
The great Indian bustard has been in deep trouble for a while. Once found across India’s grasslands and dry landscapes, the critically endangered bird is now down to just 160-odd…
All that glitters: Cameras spot Asian golden cat in more than one shade
When Sahil Nijhawan and his colleagues placed cameras across the Dibang Valley in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh in 2014 and 2015, they hoped to learn about the…
The Great Insect Dying: How to save insects and ourselves
In the fourth and final story of this exclusive Mongabay series, entomologists around the world offer far ranging solutions to curb and reverse the great insect die-off.
For India’s imperiled apes, thinking locally matters
A typical morning in the village of Phlangwanbroi starts with a melodious yet primitive-sounding song: drifting over from the nearby community forest, a series of whoops, hoots and tones rise…
Meet the new species of venomous pit viper described from India
When Rohan Pandit and Wangchu Phiang accidentally stumbled upon a brown snake on a steep slope of a forest in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh in India, little did…
Mobile app encourages Indian fishers to free entangled whale sharks
When fisherfolk in India’s westernmost state of Gujarat find a whale shark tangled in their fishing nets, it’s an unwelcome sight. They can’t legally harvest the protected species, yet the…
Phasepardhis and the lesser florican (commentary)
Himmatrao Kanjra Pawar stood in the grassland and whistled different bird calls, starting with a female rain quail. Soon, we saw a male running towards Himmatrao. “How many bird calls…
Environmental issues among top priorities of urban Indian voters: Report
With India just a few weeks away from the general elections, a new survey has shed light on what the country's voters want. The survey, released by the NGO Association…
Putting policy into practice to clean up South Asia’s dirty air (commentary)
If there was a world competition for cities with the worst air quality, South Asian cities would win hands down. In 2018, 18 of the top 20 cities with the…
West Bengal’s rhino population hits a record high
Rhino populations in India's Jaldapara and Gorumara national parks, in the state of West Bengal, have hit their highest levels in a century, according to preliminary figures from a recent…
Audio: What underwater sounds can tell us about Indian Ocean humpback dolphins
On today’s episode, we speak with marine biologist Isha Bopardikar, an independent researcher who is using bioacoustics to study humpback dolphins off the west coast of India. Listen here: …
Invasive plants a fast-growing threat to India’s rhinos
On a gloomy afternoon in May 2018, conservation biologist Bibhab Talukdar was visiting Pobitora National Park in India's Assam state. As he rode an elephant into the grasslands at the…
Seahorse trade continues despite export bans, study finds
Seahorses continue to be traded in large volumes, despite many source countries imposing bans on exports of the animals, a new study has found. While some of these peculiarly shaped…
Reducing human-elephant encounters with calls, texts, and digital signs
In India, few animals carry the kind of cultural symbolism that elephants do. Human-elephant interaction boasts a rich history dating back centuries. Nevertheless, such a long association has also included…
Abandoned plantations in forested areas may not recover fully: Study
Eucalyptus plantations in southern India that were abandoned and left to recover for nearly 40 years are still far from resembling the primary forest surrounding them, a new study has…
The odor side of otters: Tech reveals species’ adaptations to human activity
Human-dominated mangroves are far from what is considered an ideal environment for otters. And yet an estuarine island on India’s western coast is home to a thriving population of the…
India-Nepal agreement to boost transborder conservation of rhinos, tigers
India and Nepal are all set to sign an agreement to cooperate on biodiversity conservation, including the transboundary conservation of species like the Indian rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis), Bengal tiger (Panthera…
Protecting India’s fishing villages: Q&A with ‘maptivist’ Saravanan
CHENNAI, India — In a small fishing hamlet, one of thousands dotting India’s 7,500-kilometer (4,660-mile) coastline, a community leader opens his smartphone and searches his contacts for “Map Saravanan” to…
Journalists reporting on the environment faced increased dangers in 2018
A pair of “French spies” had infiltrated India by sea to commit a “treasonous conspiracy,” an Indian minister claimed in late November. In reality, they were two visiting journalists, and…
Top camera trapping stories of 2018
Everyone loves camera trap photos. Remotely installed cameras triggered by motion or heat of a passing person or animal, have helped research projects document the occurrence of species or describe…
10 ways conservation tech shifted into auto in 2018
You can now speak into your mobile phone and have it produce written text. Then have Google translate your words into Japanese, or Hindi. In two seconds. These examples of…
In India, indigenous youths are filming their own forests and communities
Read the other stories in this four-part series on the indigenous groups living around Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh, India: From a new bird to a new community reserve:…
Two Indian tribes help reconstruct a forest’s history, in war and in peace
Read the other stories in this four-part series on the indigenous groups living around Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh, India: From a new bird to a new community reserve:…
Bird business: The man who taught his tribe to profit from conservation
Read the other stories in this four-part series on the indigenous groups living around Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh, India: From a new bird to a new community reserve:…
From a new bird to a new community reserve: India’s tribe sets example
Read the other stories in this four-part series on the indigenous groups living around Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh, India: Bird business: The man who taught his tribe to…
Graphic video reveals brutality of pangolin poaching in northeast India
Hunters in India are helping supply the illegal pangolin trade, and new research that probes their motivations might point to measures that can reduce the poaching and sale of the…
Photos: Indian tribe revives heirloom seeds for health and climate security
RAYAGADA, India — The sun rose above the jagged spires of the Niyamgiri hills, the sky a wisp of apricot on rolling mounds of green. Trees bent with mangoes and…
In pursuit of the rare bird that vanishes for half the year
KATHMANDU, Nepal — As dawn peeks through the morning mist on an early spring day in Nepal's Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, a duck-sized bird flaps its wings and throws itself…
Invisible plant-enemy interactions drive diversity in forest fragments
Very few tropical forests around the world enjoy uninterrupted contiguity. Most are divided into uneven, small fragments, cut off from each other, their boundaries marked by roads or farms. But as…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- New oil refinery ‘a huge disaster’ for Nigerian forest reserve
- The Western Indian Ocean lost 4% of its mangroves in 24 years, report finds
- Poverty-fueled deforestation threatens Kenya’s largest water catchment
- Niger Delta mangroves in ‘grave danger’ from oil spills, poverty, invasive species
Oceans
- Indonesia’s sustainable fisheries push sails into storm in Java Sea
- Java fishers struggle with seine net ban amid rising costs, falling profits
- Agulhas Current enigma: An oceanic gap in our climate understanding
- U.S. charts course for adopting ropeless fishing to reduce whale deaths
Amazon Conservation
- In the Amazon, Bolsonaro’s far right may retain power even if Lula wins
- How close is the Amazon tipping point? Forest loss in the east changes the equation
- More droughts are coming, and the Amazon can’t keep up: Study
- European bill passes to ban imports of deforestation-linked commodities
Land rights and extractives
- Activists welcome decision to revoke permit for controversial Philippine gold mine
- Can Two New Bills Reshape Indigenous Rights and Illegal Gold Mining in Suriname?
- Venezuelan Amazon deforestation expands due to lawlessness, mining, fires: Reports
- Brazil miner sees Indigenous land as ripe for exploration if protections expire
Endangered Environmentalists
- Worries and whispers in Vietnam’s NGO community after activist’s sentencing
- Scientists call for end to violence against Amazon communities, environmental defenders
- Indigenous advocates sense a legal landmark as a guardian’s killing heads to trial
- In Brazil, an Indigenous land defender’s unsolved killing is the deadly norm
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
- Aziil Anwar, Indonesian coral-based mangrove grower, dies at 64
- A utopia of clean air and wet peat amid Sumatra’s forest fire ‘hell’
Conservation Effectiveness
- ‘South Asia needs its own tiger plan’: Q&A with Nepal’s Maheshwar Dhakal
- Nepal was supposed to double its tiger population since 2010. It tripled it
- In prioritizing conservation, animal culture should be a factor, study says
- Young forests can help heal tropical aquatic ecosystems: Study
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Java communities rally as clock ticks on cleanup of ‘world’s dirtiest river’
- ‘Cursed’ dam project in orangutan habitat claims 16th life in less than 2 years
- In Laos, a ‘very dangerous dam’ threatens an ancient world heritage site
- Bali’s new highway project sparks concerns about agriculture and conservation areas
