Nature-Friendly Chores

Nature-Friendly Chores

What can you do at home to pump up the oxygen levels in your surroundings? Read this motivating account of some ordinary but nature-friendly activities.

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From the past few years, my family has been undertaking certain chores which have helped us in connecting with nature in a better way. For instance, we make compost from raw fruit and vegetable scrapes, using the three-tier pot method.

At first, we gather a lot of green and brown waste from the kitchen. (Green waste means anything organic that can be composted...

Ek Ped Mere School Ke Naam

Ek Ped Mere School Ke Naam

Trees are indispensable for our survival. We rely on them for fuel, fodder, medicine, and innumerable other necessities. They make our planet conducive for life. According to a research published by Nature Climate Change, the world’s forests sequestered about twice as much carbon dioxide as they emitted between 2001 and 2019, thus playing a critical role in mitigating climate change. Therefore, keeping in mind the saying, van se vayu, vayu se aayu (air from forests, life from air), planting saplings is very important for conserving our environment...

Microbes getting Smarter, eh?

Microbes getting Smarter, eh?

An interview with Deepak Bhati and Gauri Arora, Programme Officers in the Sustainable Food Systems team of the Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, simplifying the complicatedness of antimicrobial resistance for our young readers.

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Hi Deepak and Gauri! We’ve been hearing about this complex and scary thing, ‘Antimicrobial Resistance’ (AMR). Can you please unpack it for our kids?...

Chasing the Cheetah

Chasing the Cheetah

Learn why cheetahs became extinct in India and all about their re-introduction

A Catwalk from Africa to India

A Catwalk from Africa to India

Hunting animals used to be central to the survival of most human communities over most of human history, whether it be for food or medicines or to use their fur and skin as clothes and rugs. Communities had developed ways to hunt animals without overexploiting them, such that the animals and humans could survive together. While we try to inculcate the values of sustainability in people today through classes and lectures, such values used to be a matter of common sense. If you kill all the animals this year, what are you going to hunt next year?...

Mushroom Musings

Mushroom Musings

Mushrooms have always enthralled our imagination. Let’s step onto a captivating trail to understand them and the world they inhabit.

Stranger Things
A Chatting Rockstar

A Chatting Rockstar

Knock-knock, who’s there? The holy Brown Rock Chat. A holy who???... That’s how a timid bird perplexed me at 3:30am in the dark of dawn. It was February 2019 and I was calming the anxieties of my daughter, who was fearing her imminent exams. Persistently knocking my door—I hesitated to investigate any such visitor at an ungodly hour. So, I peeped out from an adjacent window to survey my doorway and was delightfully surprised to find a beautiful, winged creature.

“Mama, look who’s come to wish me luck!" My doll whispered in ecstasy...

The SPARROW and the NEST-MAN

The SPARROW and the NEST-MAN

The Limca Book of Record holder, Rakesh Khatri, will offer an inspiring chitter-chatter on sparrow conservation.

Let There Be Rights, But…

Let There Be Rights, But…

From privileges for a few to rights for all

There was a time, not so long ago, when the so-called ‘civilised’ world was divided into free humans and slaves. Free humans were those who had the right to own property while the slaves were those who were considered as property. Free humans had the privilege to make decisions not only for themselves but also for their slaves.

As we learnt from others who we thought were less civilised than us...

Movement is Life

Movement is Life

A simple, lucid explainer on the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of wildlife corridors.

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When I was little, my grandparents used to tell me stories about how they left their small village in Rajasthan to travel to the big city of Jaipur for better opportunities. Today, I have left Jaipur for the even bigger city of Delhi to try my luck. I am sure all of you know of family members and friends who have migrated for studies, jobs, or marriage. All of us witnessed the plight of lakhs of people who migrated back to their villages on foot during the lockdown imposed in response to COVID-19. . All these people had come to cities for livelihood and they all went back when their livelihood dried up...

Kung Fu Gecko

Kung Fu Gecko

You know Jackie Chan, right? Or was he a superstar when I was growing up? Yes, you are right, you probably do not know Jackie Chan, the greatest martial artist to have ever walked the earth. The world changes fast these days. Heroes of my childhood are not the heroes of your childhood. Jackie Chan was a household name in urban India when I was growing up. He was an action hero who did all of his stunts himself. Yes, that’s right, no stunt double, no CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery), nothing, and he got hurt, really hurt, while performing his stunts, but he just went on and on like a trooper...

A Manifesto from the Microbial World

A Manifesto from the Microbial World

At the outset, I want to thank the United Nations of Humans for giving us this opportunity to address all of humankind. I speak on behalf of the quintillion microbes of our planet.

I know that we are speaking to you in a time of great distress. Each of you present here has faced personal tragedies. We convey our deepest condolences...

Gibbon Saga: A Tale of Forceful Separation and Joyous Unification

Gibbon Saga: A Tale of Forceful Separation and Joyous Unification

In 1887, 18 years before they divided Bengal into two, the British laid down a railway line through the Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, located on the south bank of the Brahmaputra river system in Jorhat district. While the railway line connected British tea plantations in Tinsukia with those in Jorhat and Dibrugarh, it divided the sanctuary into two unequal compartments—one roughly 150 hectares (370 acres), the rest roughly 1,950 hectares (4,820 acres)...

To Bee or Not to Bee
Malaria Malaise
The Mammophants
The Lost Species
The Amazon of Europe
Crocs on the Rocks!

Crocs on the Rocks!

Kendrapara is now a privileged district because it is the only one which hosts all three species of crocodilians found in India. Saltwater crocodiles have liked to hang around the area for some decades now. So, they are old news, nobody gets excited about them. Sort of a ghar ki murgi dal barabar situation. People get excited when new and unexpected things happen, when things happen that make us feel special.

Thus, news was made in 2016 when for the first time in the history...

The House of Sparrows

The House of Sparrows

Where happiness comes in small packages—the ever-delightful house sparrow.

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We often ignore our immediate periphery in our quest for finding excitement. Just think of the house sparrows! As a kid, out of sheer ignorance, I recall embarrassingly how I plundered their nests. But now, I compensate by feeding their chicks, watering them, and sheltering them in their cushy abodes.

In all this while, these humble birds never ever deserted their homes nor me...

The Importance of Being Fungi

The Importance of Being Fungi

When we think about biodiversity, we usually think only of animals, birds, insects and plants. We forget that fungi are also biodiversity. According to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the UK, fungi are ‘distinctive organisms that digest their food externally by secreting enzymes into the environment and absorbing organic matter...