Nature’s Layers Unravelled – Encounters with birds, beasts, and relatives
Posted by Arun We all know it, it’s finally official. The Government of India has decided to import cheetahs to the country from Africa. Indian Cheetahs had disappeared from the subcontinent by the end of the first half of the twentieth century after relentless persecution for decades. They were also…
The Baobab trees of Pondicherry were lost in time and rediscovered in the 13-acre forest patch inside the now defunct Swadeshi Cotton Mill Complex
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…
A scene by the Cauvery Finally, after four months of inactivity, I got an opportunity to head once again to Urigam, along with some KANS* members (by now even I was one). This is the very same place I had been to for a ground survey a few months ago.…
The arrival of the Jacobin Cuckoo announces that the monsoon is here
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…
Say cheese! Brightly! The moon was a ghostly galleon… …tossed upon cloudy seas The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, Ecology and Nature notes from India.
I feared the elephant’s shrewd little eyes were fixed on the diminutive human shuffling against my thigh. I don’t think we got the joke then, but when we viewed the pictures up close on our return to Bangalore, the punchline that tickled my daughter was ours to behold. On a…
Relatively dowdy, screechy and less musical than its cousin, the Malabar Whistling Thrush of the Western Ghats, the Blue Whistling Thrush is nonetheless a character. To reach any destination in the Himalaya — from anywhere that you may venture to do so — you must first impatiently transect the purgatory…
The early monsoon has brought on a spate of moth-finding. Here are three beauties that I shot around the house. Id help will be greatly appreciated. 1 – Medium. Shot on exterior wall 2 – Small, shot on shelf beading 3 – Small, found resting against a car window All…
In childhood, I have watched snakes clubbed to death by people I loved. Possessed by ignorance and fear, perhaps they killed without thinking, because harmless snakes had been at the receiving end of their wrath. I had no say then but I knew it was awfully wrong. Today, by saving…
Driving in the beautiful Biligirirangans can be equally exhausting and enchanting! Drove with the family for the first time to my favourite forest in Karnataka last weekend. Wandered desperately for 40 km between Yelandur and Chamarajnagar looking for a fuel station because we forgot to top up at Mysore. We had…
It rains nine months of the year in Meghamalai The May 29, 2010 issue of Tehelka was an unusual one. The magazine took a break — a holiday, if you will — from its hard-nosed coverage of grimmer happenings. The enjoyable Summer Special compiled travel articles by well known writers (such as…
I woke up at half past five to a clear dawn sky. There was a cold edge to the happy laughter of the brook. Ambling down on creaky knees to wash, I heard an excited chirruping and saw two lovely white-capped water redstarts (Chaimarrornis leucocephalus) chasing each other up and down the length of the brook.
