NB: My old schoolmates from the Sainik School Kunjpura will recall that the village of Kunjpura is named after the Demoiselle Crane, which is a sub-species of the Siberian crane. The name koonj is derived from the Sanskrit word kraunch, which is a cognate Indo-European term for crane itself. Our School magazine was named The Grey Kunj. In the winter the lake besides the school… Read More Siberian crane: Back from the brink
Teeming with wildlife under lush canopies, this area in Australia’s island state is one of the world’s most remarkable – and one most in need of protection Elfy Scott Witnessing Takayna/Tarkine is a rare privilege. After I press through metres of the dense, dry shrubs that skirt the forest floor, the rainforest quickly opens into… Read More Masked owls, wild devils & giant crayfish: inside the ancient forests of Tasmania’s Takayna
Global Witness More than 2,100 environmental activists were killed worldwide between 2012 and 2023, with Latin America holding the highest percentage globally, an international non-governmental organization (NGO) said Tuesday. The new report by Global Witness said an estimated 196 land and environmental defenders were killed around the world in 2023 alone. The report found that… Read More Over 2,100 environmental activists killed worldwide between 2012 & 2023 / The violent erasure of land and environmental defenders
A group of 60 former civil servants has written to the Chief Justice of India, claiming that a “conflict of interest” in the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) could compromise the outcome of cases challenging the Forest Conservation Amendment Act, 2023. In their open letter dated June 30, the signatories, including former secretaries, ambassadors,… Read More Conflict of interest in Central Empowered Committee may compromise FCAA cases: Retired bureaucrats write to CJI
By Angus Watson It appears in satellite pictures like great blotches of blue and green ink; swirling, spreading, sinking into parchment paper. In Australia’s arid center, those blotches represent a new inland sea, born from a deluge that has traveled hundreds of miles through the veins of a giant, parched continent. The rare event is now… Read More Rare event breathes life back into Australia’s arid outback, attracting both animals and tourists
Ellen Wayland-Smith admires how Is a River Alive? places the reader in immersive contact with the nature we regard as mere backdrop to human activity. Is A River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane. 2025 IN RELIGIOUS COSMOGONIES, anthropologist Mircea Eliade argues in his 1957 book The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, the natural world… Read More What Would It Take to Re-Sacralize Nature?
Seven winners of environmental prize include Amazonian river campaigner and Tunisian who fought against organised waste trafficking Nina Lakhani Grassroots activists who helped jail corrupt officials and obtain personhood rights for a sacred Amazonian river are among this year’s winners of the world’s most prestigious environmental prize. The community campaigns led by the seven 2025… Read More Grassroots activists who fought corruption & corporate power share environmental prize
The current UN climate change regime “embodies the clearest, most specific, and the most current expression of states’ consent to be bound by international law in respect of climate change”, Margaret Taylor, legal adviser at the state department, told the ICJ judges on Wednesday. “Any other legal obligations relating to climate change mitigation identified by… Read More Fury as US argues against climate obligations at top UN court
Robert Greenall The world’s oldest known wild bird has laid an egg at the approximate age of 74, US biologists say. Wisdom, a Laysan albatross, was filmed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) at the Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge in the Pacific Ocean with her latest partner looking after the egg. Members… Read More World’s oldest known wild bird lays egg at 74
Alan Taylor Gathered below are a collection of photographs from the North Island, the South Island, and a few of the other 600 islands that make up the nation of New Zealand. A view along the Milford Sound Highway on New Zealand’s South Island. Coolbiere Photograph / Getty A kea takes off along the Kepler… Read More Scenes From New Zealand (2020)
After the truth-shower 