This author has yet to write their bio.Meanwhile lets just say that we are proud administrator contributed a whooping 70 entries.
The Sigur River, flowing through the heart of the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve, provides water to a dry region of significant importance for the conservation of wildlife. The Kamarajsagar dam was constructed across the river in the 1960s. From a perennial river supporting over 30-species of fish, became seasonal and flowed only during the rains. This […]
The following opinion about our paper on tiger gene flow (ref here) was circulated in a Whatsapp group and was therefore, public. Parts of the text were questionable, but I limit my response to technical issues. The text says: “… If you look at the resistance map closely, you will find that tiger […]
Our call for support is now closed, since our generous sponsors – overshot the target. We thank Ms. Naheed Carrimjee, Ms. Priya Nehrurajan, Mr. Raian Irani, Mr. Rémi Daudin and Mr. Rustom Mehta for their generous, invaluable support.
We just published the paper “Spatial variation in the response of tiger gene flow to landscape features and limiting factors” in Animal Conservation, available here. With this paper we were interested in how landscape features affect tiger’s gene flow. What we observed was that the tiger is an amazing animal, not much bothered by obstacles […]
Following the 2017 drought, when many elephants died in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, there was attempts to reassure the public regarding this particular situation (https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/wildlife-and-biodiversity/elephants-in-drought-hit-karnataka-tamil-nadu-die-to-hunger-thirst-57661). We posted a blog in this website to warn that if elephant populations were regulated by natural conditions centuries ago, today “unnatural” conditions imposed by humanity, prevail. Indeed, we have […]
Plant conservation is driven by local protection and science. We have published a paper in the New Phytologist (soon to be available), on the organization of plant conduits (called xylem). Understanding the anatomy and physiology of plants has plenty of uses, including predicting reaction to global warming and species success in ecological restoration. Astonishingly, the […]
When I came to Pondicherry in 1990, the main vehicle was the cycle. I thought that all efforts should be made to keep it that way. People exercised, the air was clean and the traffic not dangerous, apart from the buses. My reasoning was that city development should be organized to emulate that of Holland, […]
We have recently published a scientific paper (here) on rare tree species in the Western Ghats of India with colleagues belonging to different institutions. In general, rarity is of interest to conservation biologists because rare species tend to be at greater risk of extinction than common species. The Western Ghats rain forests have a high […]
On our trip to France, we decided to drive through the small country roads to reach our destination crisscrossing farmlands, villages and patches of woodlands. We stopped now and then to admire the beautiful villages, churches and agricultural landscapes which seemed deserted compared to India with its over one billion people. Soon I started to […]
Engineers have the Murphy’s law. Ecologists didn’t have anything similar since evolution through natural selection optimizes ecosystem functioning: if anything goes wrong, it is eliminated. This was before managers came in. At present, in our modern world, we must manage nature. Some problems are addressed and the outcomes are surprising. Here are a few examples: […]