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…
AI simplifies statewide study of leopards in south India
An extensive study of the leopard population in the wildlife-rich southern Indian state of Karnataka has indicated that these big cats are thriving there, buoying hopes the species’ genetic pool…
Is northern India better prepared for air pollution this winter?
Winter in north India is almost here, and social media is already buzzing with pictures of crop residue burning in the country’s northern states. Over the last few years, the…
Machine-learning app to fight invasive crop pest in Africa
Since the arrival of the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) caterpillar in West Africa in early 2016, true to its name, it has been marching quickly and mercilessly through the continent,…
In a rhino stronghold, indigenous wood-carvers cut through stereotypes
Sitting on a wooden plank on the floor of his tiny workshop, Kushal Das meticulously uses his chisel and gouge to give the finishing touches to the rhinoceros he’s spent…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Satellites show deforestation surging in Indonesia’s Tesso Nilo National Park
- Large-scale logging in Cambodia’s Prey Lang linked to politically-connected mining operation
- Pasture replaces large tract of intact primary forest in Brazilian protected area
- Deforestation on the rise as poverty soars in Nigeria
Oceans
- Nickel, Tesla and two decades of environmental activism: Q&A with leader Raphaël Mapou
- All eyes on Tesla as it invests in a troubled nickel mine
- ‘The return of land to Indigenous people is key’: Q&A with Shinnecock Kelp Farm’s Tela Troge
- WTO finally nets deal curbing fisheries subsidies, but tables key bits for later
Amazon Conservation
- At 30, Brazil’s Yanomami reserve is beset by mining, malaria and mercury
- Pasture replaces large tract of intact primary forest in Brazilian protected area
- Ecuador’s Pastaza province, Indigenous groups collaborate on forest conservation
- ‘Giving up’: Amazon is losing its resilience under human pressure, study shows
Land rights and extractives
- Coal mining threatens Ethiopia’s ancient coffee forest
- Proposed copper and gold mine threatens the world’s ‘second Amazon’ in PNG
- In Indonesian Borneo, a succession of extractive industries multiplies impacts, social fractures
- Illegal mining threatens one of the last forest links between the Andes and Ecuador’s Amazon
Endangered Environmentalists
- A look at violence and conflict over Indigenous lands in nine Latin American countries
- Citizen participation: a key achievement at the first COP to the Escazú Agreement
- “We are on the front line”: Q&A with Indigenous land defender Adiela Jineth Mera Paz
- Death threats and friction with military force Guatemalan rangers to flee
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- From Flores to Papua: Meet 10 of Indonesia’s mangrove guardians
- Why I stand for my tribe’s forest: It gives us food, culture, and life (commentary)
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time
Conservation Effectiveness
- In prioritizing conservation, animal culture should be a factor, study says
- Young forests can help heal tropical aquatic ecosystems: Study
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- In Laos, a ‘very dangerous dam’ threatens an ancient world heritage site
- Bali’s new highway project sparks concerns about agriculture and conservation areas
- Deforestation notches up along logging roads on PNG’s New Britain Island
- Plantations and roads strip away Papua’s forests. They’re just getting started
