Nature’s Layers Unravelled – Encounters with birds, beasts, and relatives
The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, which includes the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu apart from regions in Karnataka and Kerala, has some of the highest ranges in southern India including Dodda Betta, the second highest peak in the Western Ghats. These high ranges are notable for a peculiar kind of forest…
Common Bush-Brown butterfly (Mycalesis perseus) in wet-season form flirting with the shadow of a Tulsi plant (Ocimum sanctum) on my balcony on a sunny afternoon, and eventually perching on it. Enough said. Well, that was almost wordless. Photos: Beej The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from…
The Hill Swallow – note the rufous throat and face ‘One swallow does not make a summer’ is part of a quote attributed to Aristotle. In truth it represents a very Eurocentric position on swallows, in this case the Barn Swallow that migrates south to India in winter. On my…
Today, January 7, is the birth anniversary of Gerald Durrell, beloved author to some, and to others a path-breaking conservationist who changed the flavour of the word ‘zoo’. I have been inspired by Durrell for most of my life, although circumstances (and a general lack of guts and initiative) have…
A walk on the beach can yield untold treasures The beach on a wet, windswept day Most people pick seashells on the seashore, and there’s that old tongue-twirler about some old sheila selling them, too. Often, it’s the smelliest, filthiest beaches littered with landmines of human dung that offer the…
In July, I travelled to the Maldives with a rock band that I worked with. We stayed at Club Faru, about 20 minutes by speedboat from the main island of Male. After finishing work on our second day, I discovered that I had five days more to do nothing —…
We have been treated to an extended northeast monsoon here in Bangalore. And every now and then I am presented with pleasant surprises. A few recent moth sightings. Identification help is greatly appreciated. Tiny, with neat peachy-fawn and black coloration (indoors) The same chap, pictured on my wrist (indoors) Leopard…
I was inspired to start an occasional Wordless Wednesday post by Gallicissa. Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis) Green Bee Eater (Merops orientalis) (Photographs: Bijoy Venugopal) The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.
For this Chital stag at Bannerghatta, Diwali was a faraway rumble Diwali, the festival of lights that signifies the victory of good over evil, makes us Ogres nervous. Noise, smoke, runny eyes, shortness of breath and sadness at the colossal waste darken our moods. And because we don’t want to…
Half-mouse and half-hare is the Royle’s Pika. One of the most adorable mammals in the Himalaya
I was drawn to the massif gleaming in the horizon as it towered over the lesser ranges in the foreground Chaukhamba (right) from Bedni Bugyal. The peak next to it is Shivling (near Gangotri). Photo: Sahastrarashmi (2002) In September 2009, Sahastra and I took a train from Delhi to Haridwar…
In late September 2009, I joined Sahastra and four friends on a trek to the Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand. When we reached there we were told that the season for flowers had slipped behind us by two weeks. We prepared for disappointment but instead discovered to our happy surprise that…
Since The Green Ogre became a group blog last month we have been getting a fair bit of eyeballs. Our Facebook page, started last weekend, has already enlisted a few “likers”. We have a lot more to offer here — photo albums, discussions, videos, etc. And the opportunity to share…
Friends call me Beej. I started the Green Ogre in 2006 for the pleasure of writing about nature. Four years down, I felt its scope should extend to featuring talents more diverse than mine. On my 36th birthday in June, I extended an offer to three close friends and fellow-travellers…
By crying wolf over green issues, ill-informed journalists are indulging in yellow journalism. The recent scare-mongering by the national media over the “death” of the wetland bird sanctuary of Sultanpur is a case in point. Keoladeo Ghana park director Anoop KR holding an invasive Mangur catfish and the partially consumed…
