Unhearthed

Early morning twitter is music to ears. But soon this melody may turn into a requiem with the bird community slowly being driven out of its natural surroundings. Constant human encroachment on the forest cover is forcing these avian creatures to abandon their homes and explore alternate sites for shelter and sustenance.

Flying on the edge

Not even the mighty Mount Everest can deter the flight of bar-headed geese. Every spring, gaggles of this world's highest-altitude migrants cross the Himalayan range as they migrate from their winter home in the low lands of India to their nesting abode in Tibet.

Outstanding grain

TALL and slender with a luminescent white complexion - this could be a description in a stereotype matrimonial in an Indian newspaper or it could be a vague attempt to describe the king of rice - basmati.

Tracking Tigers

It was 6 in the morning when we reached Sultanpur post of Sawai Madhopur range of Ranthambhore National Park, manned by a lone forest guard Nawab Singh. Thus began our fortnight long tiger tracking on foot -- the pugmark method of counting tigers after a briefing on the procedure.

Struggle for existence

Madhavappa owns a farm just a kilometre from the boundary of the famous Bandipur Project Tiger Reserve close to Hangala, a largish village in the Chamrajnagara district of Karnataka. On this he cultivates ragi or finger millet. I met him in this field where his young relative was killed the previous night by a cow elephant and her calf, which the unfortunate youth had been trying to drive away.

Last call

every once in a while, eating the tuberous growth in the wetlands, the male and female Sarus crane ( Grus antigone antigone ) strike a pose and make their call in unison. The villagers of Etawah and Mainpuri districts of Uttar Pradesh ( up ) have for ages been used to such antics of the bird.

Zooming in

A frieze of landscape in black and white. Low hillocks, meandering streams, misty waterfalls and thick foliage. Rays of diffused sunlight filter through the canopy, white clouds nestle among jagged peaks, green dunes stretch across huge acres, low grasslands, high precipice, barren rocks and sheer drops.

Drying wetlands

located at altitudes of 4,000-5,000 metres, the wetlands in the Changtang area of eastern Ladakh attract a large variety of wildlife as well as humans with their livestock. This area covering thousand of square kilometres lies within the boundaries of the Changtang Wilderness Area or the proposed High Altitude Cold Desert National Park.

Hornbills in peril

Bitten by the betel

WAJAD ALI SHAH, the last nawab of Avadh (Oudh), reaches out for an intricately carved silver khaas daan (a container for betel leaf) and gingerly takes out a green triangle dangling from one of the fine silver chains. Putting it in his mouth, he ruminates, savouring its flavour as he ponders on the next lines of his limerick. This scene out of a classic cinema gives paan (Piper betel) its place in history for this leaf has not just served merely as a mouth-freshener but has been a symbol of royalty, status, pleasure and addiction.