Order of the Supreme Court in the matter of M K Ranjitsinh & Others Vs Union of India & Others dated 21/03/2024. The matter related to protection of Great Indian Bustard (GIB) and Lesser Florican. The SC order of April 19, 2021 imposed restrictions on the setting up of overhead …
The days are certainly numbered for the northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita), one of the world's rarest birds. Their numbers dropped sharply by 17 per cent when 38 of them were struck down by a mysterious disease. The bald ibis once occupied the grasslands of North Africa and the Middle …
The largest flying creature ever- a pterosaur called Arambourgiania philadelphiae that lived some 65 million years ago -has been identified by British and German palaeontologists as the owner of an elongated neck bone which was found in Jordan in 1943. The pterosaur had a wingspan of 12 metres. Wrongly identified …
IN THE struggle for existence, the feathered creatures are losing out to the denizens 6f the deep. Every year, Scotland carries out licenced. killing of at least a thousand wild birds to save salmons. Conservationists claim that there is no scientific justification for the cull. The Scottish Office (so) is …
INDIAN ornithologists are a worried lot these days. The departure of four Siberian cranes - before satellite transmitters could be fixed on them to monitor their return journey - is only one of their concerns (Down To Earth, Vol 4, No 23). The number of these rare visitors has been …
Birds like female blue tits control the sex of the eggs they lay, but this crucial decision hinges on the health of their mates. If the males are more active and healthy, the females produce more sons than daughters. This was revealed in a study conducted by researchers from Lund …
MIGRATORY birds may not find their return journey to their homelands in Europe as hazardous as before. The European Parliament, after a heated debate, has finally agreed for the hunting season to close on January 31 each year. 'Environmentalists and anti-hunters won the day after the amendment to close the …
A THREE-YEAR study conducted by the World Wide Fund for Nature-International for the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) reveals that sea birds inhabiting the Midway Islands in the,north Pacific have concentrations of persistant organic pollutants ajhigh as those in the birds found around the shores of the Great Lakes, North America …
A crow making tools? Sounds in- credible, because the cognitive ability to design, make, standardise and use tools is normally thought to be an activity of the intelligent " human race. But according to Gavin R Hunt, a biologist at Massey University in Palmerston, New Zealand, the tool-making capacity of …
What do red-knobbed hornbills of Indonesia have in common with the -rain forest of Sulawesi? A 16t, it seems. They help in maintaining and regenerating the rain forests of the region while depending upon it. "The hornbills are the farmers of the Sulawesi forest," says Margaret Kinnaird of the 'Wildlife …
The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) recently carried out the third annual nationwide bird count in India, targeting the commonly seen or heard species. The campaign was aimed at creating environmental awareness among people and collating data to enable the BNHS to prioritise conservation activity areas and to determine the …
ALL-OUT efforts have been launched to safeguard the maroon-fronted parrot, a rare species of parrot which has its home in the towering limestone cliffs of El Taray in northern Mexico. The parrot, distinguished by a maroon forehead and yellow eye rings, is the size of a pigeon and is found …
In a recent presentation on The Threatened Birds of India, at the India International Centre, New Delhi, Bikram Grewal, a prolific writer on the birds of India, revealed the sad statistics of India's depleting forest cover and its impact on the avian population. The Red data book of the Zoological …
THE majestic pelicans have found a safe haven in a quaint little village in Karnataka, Kokkre Bellur. The villagers here have been safeguarding them and other birds like painted storks. The spotted billed pelicans are an endangered species. There were one million of them in the world in 1920. Today, …
The bill of the nectar-drinking iiwi bird of Hawaii has become shorter by 3 per cent since the last century, conclude University of Hawaii and University of California (Berkeley) zoologists after comparing the bills of 87 fiwis collected in 1902 with those of 135 recent specimens (Discover, Vol 16, No …
THERE may be hope yet for the swiftlet, a small Indian bird found only in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, which is in danger of becoming endangered. TRAFFIc-India. a branch of Twmc-international is in the midst of a report which It hopes will push the Union government into quick action …
Is there a person in the urban high castles who wouldn't like to hear the sounds of jungle birds piped in through his cable? A sonic expert, S Sivaprasad, has made this possible. His recordings of birdsong are the first in the subcontinent. In An Audio Guide to the Birds …
All of us at some time or the other ha wondered what it would be like to hear the sounds of our favourite jungle birds sitting at home. But one need not wonder any longer because S Sivaprasad has made this possible. For the first time. birdsong has been recorded …
The South African government is minting money - by selling ostriches. It is now reported to be the biggest ostrich goods producer in the world; and business is booming. The country exports almost every part of this huge non-flying bixd - feathers, meat, skin and eggs. Sales of ostrich meat, …
One for the birds: Meeting recently under the auspices of the Convention on Migratory Species (cms), representatives of over 60 nations signed an ambitious inter-governmental agreement -- aimed at conserving migratory waterbirds of Africa and Eurasia -- in The Hague, Netherlands. The agreement, called the African Eurasian Waterbird Agreement, covers …
ETOSHO, the place of dry water: the film is intended to be educative, in the National Geographic genre, featuring gobs of painstaking wildlife photography and a relatively simple message on why water is so valuable for life. The superb photography is complemented with an often humorous and well-paced commentary. For …
