The sacred grove at Oorani is the last stand of Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests — a postage stamp-sized green patch in the middle of insipid featureless coastal plain dotted with coconut plantations. It does not exactly draw your attention. That, however, would be a huge miss. Continue reading Encounter: The Sacred Grove at Oorani
Never mind its cough-syrupy taste, or its tongue-twister of a name, a Rhododendron in flower is inspiration enough to walk the Himalaya, or the Nilgiris Continue reading Encounter: Rhododendron, sentinel of the highlands
Located not far from Lucknow, the Manjhi Akshayavat, one of India’s celebrated great banyans, is all that survives of the vast forest that once protected it. Continue reading Manjhi Akshayavat, an immortal Banyan tree
What do you call a bird with no name? Or one whose name has been changed lately? Such questions such briefly but subside when confronted with the dazzling beauty of the Himalayan Bluetail — or whatever they called it earlier … Continue reading Encounter: Himalayan Bluetail
When a mundane classroom question raises questions about God and the universe Shashwat : The early crustaceans gave way to archosaurs and then to Dinosaurs. Me : Yes, I guess so. Shashwat : They in turn gave way to reptiles … Continue reading Le Question: What did God do?
Silent in life — and in death While critiquing a book by his contemporary Stephen Jay Gould, the noted writer on evolutionary theory Richard Dawkins refutes his contention that the idea of progress in evolutionary history of life is an artifact … Continue reading Life and death – Another Richard Dawkins lesson
When the dim, shadowy silence of the leaf-litter suddenly takes wing, it’s either a ghost or a nightjar that sets your heart racing. Our search that began in the hunt for a peacock feather took us to the adorable Large-tailed … Continue reading Encounter: Large-tailed Nightjar
Statistically, 35 people perished in the carnage essayed by Cyclone Thane. Yet, the obituaries that will never be written are of Pondicherry’s beautiful avenue trees, many of which we have celebrated on The Green Ogre. In the funereal streets of … Continue reading Shrieks of silence in Pondicherry’s treeless avenues
To those of us sitting in Bangalore, Cyclone Thane is just a cold, wet day to grumble about. Or perhaps even enjoy as we huddle (or … Continue reading Encounter: Cyclone Thane, Pondicherry
Here was the Bicoloured Frog again, dressed for its wedding party. Continue reading The Bicoloured Frog’s Wedding Suit
Carl Safina’s mellifluous prose evokes the beauty and mystery of the sea and its ancient denizen, the Leatherback turtle Voyage Of The Turtle: In Pursuit Of The Earth’s Last Dinosaur by Carl Safina Published by Henry Holt and Co.; 1st edition (May … Continue reading Review: Carl Safina’s pursuit of the Leatherback Turtle
Photograph: Sahastrarashmi Enjoy all Wordless Wednesdays The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India. Continue reading Wordless Wednesday: Babbler thumbs its nose
The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda may well have been talking of the immersion of Ganesha, thinks Sahastrarashmi as he presents a tableau of pictures from the beach at Pondicherry Let’s put all our treasures together — the clocks, plates, cups cracked by the cold — into a sack and carry them to the sea and let our possessions sink into one alarming breaker that sounds like a river. May whatever breaks be reconstructed by the sea with the long labor of its tides. So many useless things which nobody broke but which got broken anyway. ~ PABLO NERUDA From Ode … Continue reading Immersing Ganesha – An ode to broken things?
An attractive raptor even while perched, the Black-shouldered Kite is hard to forget once spotted hovering For a long time after I learned to identify this bird, also called the Black-winged Kite to differentiate it from the Australian Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris), I did not witness its flight. During the winter dusk near my village in Rae Bareli, I always saw it hover over potential prey that it had spotted on the ground. All you needed was to scan the horizon and, eight times out of 10, you could spot this bird hovering. The kite hovers over open scrub or grassland patches with … Continue reading On the Wing: Black-shouldered Kite
Photo: Sandeep Somasekharan See all Wordless Wednesday posts The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India. Continue reading Wordless Wednesday – What’s inside the fig?