Wildlife & Biodiversity

Should ivory trade be legalised?

International ban on ivory trade has neither reduced elephant poaching nor the volume of the illegal trade. Is it time the trade is legalised? Rajeshwari Ganesan in India, Alok Gupta in Hong Kong, Sifelani Tsiko in Zimbabwe and Mandi Smallhorne in South Africa, analyse how such a decision will prevent elephant killings and financially empower communities in Africa

Wildlife & Biodiversity

World Wildlife Day: India’s conflict with elephants

Elephants stand at the focal point on the occasion of World Wildlife Day. In India, human-elephant conflict is increasing due to shrinking habitats

Wildlife & Biodiversity

Meet thy neighbours

Every existence has its excuse, it is said. Every year taxonomists in India venture into uncharted landscapes and scan every nook and corner to find out many such existences and unveil the excuses. In the past year they found 523 species of animals and plants. Down To Earth introduces a few of the country's newest citizens to you, each of them equally contributing to the megadiversity of India

Wildlife & Biodiversity

Out of control: why monkeys are a menace

Damage by raiding monkeys has become a menace of unprecedented magnitude. Down To Earth travels to Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh to understand what's causing this problem

Wildlife & Biodiversity

Elephantine block

A wall to keep elephants at bay ends up alienating people in an Uttarakhand village

Wildlife & Biodiversity

Is illegal trade pushing the mongoose towards extinction?

Reports suggest that brushes made of mongoose hair are in great demand in several countries and are often smuggled to the US, the Middle East and European countries

Wildlife & Biodiversity

Let the Sangai dance

A critically endangered brow-antlered deer found in the world's only floating wildlife park in Manipur may soon lose its habitat

Wildlife & Biodiversity

A roar in captivity

A Ranthambore tiger wakes up the world community

Wildlife & Biodiversity

Blurring identities

Recent cases in the US and Argentina have reignited the debate on granting "personhood" to animals

Wildlife & Biodiversity

Gujarat's burgeoning crocodilopolis

Vadodara plans a park for crocodiles to keep their numbers and attacks on humans in check

Wildlife & Biodiversity

R K Laxman and his love for common crow

Legendary cartoonist who passed away on Monday in Pune had a fascination for the crow, which he thought was a really ‘uncommon’ bird

Wildlife & Biodiversity

Jumbo conflict

Human-elephant conflict is rising across India. Every year nearly 400 people are killed by elephants and about 100 elephants lose their lives. Enigmatically, the conflict is not restricted to areas where elephants have traditionally been found.

Wildlife & Biodiversity

Curse of the horn

Soaring prices of rhino horns have led to a new spurt of poaching in the Kaziranga National Park, Assam. Once heralded as a conservation success story, the park is now being held hostage by poachers. Arnab Pratim Dutta travels to the park to investigate and find answers to the conservation riddle

Wildlife & Biodiversity

A conservative agenda

Debates explode over more focus on species beneficial to humans

Wildlife & Biodiversity

A bill for biodiversity

CoP-11 has an urgent agenda: to look for money to fund new targets

Wildlife & Biodiversity

Taking stock of biodiversity

The Convention on Biological Diversity, 20 years on, is still struggling to stem the precipitous decline in biodiversity. After missing the 2010 target of reducing biodiversity loss, it is now pulling out all stops to meet the Aichi Targets, named after the Japanese prefecture where new goals for protection were set two years ago. As time runs out to protect the world’s ‘natural …