“How do small insects defend themselves in such a huge jungle?" a five-year old asked in amazement as I escorted 30 young Sanctuary Cub Club children a quarter way up the Yewoor Trail in the rain-drenched forests of Borivli, Mumbai. "Won’t these ants drown?” ...

"Your loyalty must never be to governments, or institutions set up to save wildlife, it must be to wildlife and nature itself."  That was Kailash Sankhala, talking to me at a camp fire on a cold January night in Bharatpur long ago.  I was suggestible.  He change...

To those who believe that most of Earth’s secrets have been unveiled by science, it should come as some surprise that the evolutionary history of birds is still mired in debate and shrouded in doubt. 

 Live the Green Life

Just outside our balcony, growing out of a sheer rock face is an outcrop of lantana bushes that have proven to be a virtual sanctuary in an otherwise human-dominated landscape. I spend hours in my balcony watching sunbirds, tailorbirds, Magpie Robins, koels, sparrows, crows, Rose-ringed...

Everyone talks these days about how much longer Mumbai can cope with the unending influx of outsiders. Frankly, we stopped coping a long time ago. 

Mumbai’s buildings are not its main heritage. It’s the people who have gone before us who give the city in which we live its unique flavour and character. Their personality is embedded in the nooks and crannies of our city. Who comes to mind as I write this is Dr. Sali...

It was the spring of 1995. Flowers came into bloom all over the Stanford campus. Synergy (Cooksey) House on the hill was no exception. Springtime came to Synergy too. The afternoon sun streamed into my room that faced the back of the house, overlooking the manicured lawn a...

Morning breaks gently 9,000 feet up in the Himalaya. Subtle greys, blues, pinks and yellows displace the shroud of darkness as the sounds of a new day emerge. I sit contemplating and savouring the wonders and mysteries of life. I can make little of the whistling, twilling and chirping o...