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 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 …
DNA fingerprinting will now turn the screws on illegal trade in birds in the uk. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the British police have joined hands to bring the technique to British courts. The specialists attempt to foil bird breeders who steal eggs from the nests …
For an avid birdwatcher, the annual migration of birds from cold Siberia to warmer climes has all the ingredients of a of a high-tension drama."It's exciting," says a wide-eyed Iqbak Mullik, director of Shrishti, a NGO which espouses the avian cause. Shrishti organises bird counts across the country. It has …
The Japanese quail is at the epicentre of a row between the agriculture ministry and the ministry of environment and forests (MEF). The quails were introduced in India during the '70s and were being utilised as a rural development pursuit. But MEF has now thrown a spanner in the works: …
SOUTH African airforce personnel battled an Atlantic storm to fly in a helicopter and save penguins in Dassen Island, Cape Town, when they were endangered by oil from an old wreck. "This is certainly the worst oil pollution disaster we have ever had," said Allison Dehrmann, an official of the …
ON A cool, February morning, the mist hangs low over the harvested rice fields of Chinglepet district in Tamil Nadu. A peculiar, gurgling sound emanates from the haze, arousing your curiosity. The noise gradually gets louder - and suddenly, around a thousand quacking ducks emerge from the mist with their …
AFTER months of dithering, the ministry of environment and forests (MEF) has shot down the proposal of the National Airports Authority (NAA) to deploy falcons to curb the bird menace around airports in India. In India, on an average about 230 bird-hits on aircraft are reported every year -- among …
THE errant ways of humans have the most unexpected effects on ecosystems. Ecologists J Graveland and his colleagues at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology say that air pollution and the subsequent acid rain have had enormous impact on the reproduction of a common European bird -- the great tit (Nature, …
A MAJOR bird-smuggling racket was literally uncovered on the tarmac of New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. Just before four "abnormal" packages wrapped in gunny were loaded on to a Pakistan International Airlines flight for Dubai, curious customs officials pounced on them and found that they were packed with more …
A HANDFUL of people gathered together on a cold wintry evening in a remote Himalayan village in Arunachal Pradesh, seeking to conserve the only winter habitat of the blacknecked crane in India. They included two village elders, the headmaster and a teacher of a village school and the deputy director …
A PARROT is a gloriously long-lived thing, often chalking up half a century -- but only in its own wild kingdom. Make an apparently brattish pet out of it and its life stalls and plunges to 5 years, says the United Kingdom's Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). The EIA has conducted …
SCIENTISTS at Delhi's Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) have identified five wheat varieties developed in agricultural universities and institutes that are resistant to damage by birds, especially parrots. However, these varieties failed at pre-release trials and breeders are now trying to incorporate the bird- resistant property into other high-yielding wheat …
IS RATIONALITY a solely human chartersistic ? Perhaps not, contend two evolutionary biologists who applied a decision making model similar to one used for social behaviour of a bird called the white-fronted bee-eater (Merops bulockoides). These birds, common to east and central Africa, live in joint families of five to …
A JAPANESE company has developed a device to discourage pigeons from perching on statues, temples and other buildings and control the menace of pigeon droppings. Called a "bird stopper", the device works on a recent discovery that the homing characteristics of pigeons are influenced by the earth's magnetic field (New …
