As the Gujarat government sets about catching 500 crocodiles from two ponds near the Statue of Unity to make a seaplane lauchpad for ferrying tourists, Down To Earth speaks to veteran crocodile expert, Raju Vyas on the issue
"Pre-Independence India did better conservation"
M K Ranjitsinh has been involved in conservation for more than 40 years. Rajat Ghai speaks to him about his latest book, A Life with Wildlife: From Princely India to the Present, and India's conservation challenges
'We could discover new bird species in the eastern Himalayas'
Trevor Price has been studying birds in India since 1972, investigating breeding biology and bird distributions, especially in the Himalayas. He is a leading expert in bird speciation—the formation of new bird species in the course of evolution. Currently, on a Fulbright Fellowship and working with the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, he speaks to Rajat Ghai about Himalayan avifauna
‘A zoo must strive to meet animals’ physical and psychological needs’
Gerald Durrell was a British naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, author and television presenter. He founded what are now called the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Durrell Wildlife Park on the English Channel island of Jersey in 1959. Tiasa Adhya talks to his wife Lee Durrell about how zoos can take up pro-active roles in animal care and conservation
'Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson’s accuracy of description is very much in question'
Bruce D. Patterson is the MacArthur Curator of Mammals at the Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH) in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is also an authority on lions. On April 19, 2017, Patterson, along with Larisa DeSantis from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, published a new study about the most (in)famous man-eating lions of all time, the Tsavo Maneaters. In his study, Bruce …
`Religion is not doing enough to help wildlife'
George Schaller is one of the first scientists to study and rediscover several rare and charismatic species. These include the mountain gorillas in the Congo, lions in Tanzania, tigers in India, jaguars in Brazil and the Asiatic cheetahs in Iran. He has also been researching the wildlife in China, including the giant panda, the Tibetan antelope and the snow leopard. On a recent visit to India,…
‘Russia will do its best to protect the Amur tiger’
Sergey Aramilev is the Deputy Director of the Vladivostok-based Amur Tiger Centre. He is in Delhi to attend the third Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation. He speaks to Down To Earth about the status of the Amur or Siberian tiger, the largest extant tiger subspecies. Excerpts:
‘Wild tigers could be back in Kazakhstan by 2026’
Igor Chestin is the head of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)’s Russia chapter. He is in Delhi to attend the third Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation. Chestin is heading a radical scheme to introduce the tiger back to Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s biggest country. It was once home to the now-extinct Caspian subspecies of tiger (Panthera Tigris Virgata). With Chestin&…
‘The future of the Indian Wolf is hanging by a slender thread’
Karnataka-based documentary filmmakers, Senani Hegde and Krupakar, whose work on wild dogs has been feted in the past, have recently, won another laurel. Their documentary, Walking With Wolves recently won the Wildlife Conservation Award at the Centre for Media Studies’ Vatavaran festival. The duo spoke to Down To Earth on their movie and the Indian Wolf. Excerpts:
