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(November 29, 2021) Here’s the fifth part of our ‘Birds of Chopta’ series – with the following seven birds and poems dedicated to each one of them. We hope you enjoy it. Poems by Sourabha Rao. Photo courtesy shared below each image. 1. Green-tailed sunbird © Pradeep so many colours on such a small being we unknowingly learn to love inconsistencies this unsuspecting teacher has taught his lesson and is about to fly away how is it, then, we also learn to love that which...

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(November 24, 2021) Written by Sourabha Rao There is an effortless grace some beings embody, like it were that simple, in the way they stand, walk, and just are. One such rare, immense being is the great Indian bustard (GIB). Walking as if it never flinches away from being gallant, the crown of its head is a distinct black, starkly contrasting with its head and long neck. With a brown body, long and bare legs, this bustard can stand up to one-metre tallness. One of the heaviest flying avian species in the wor...

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(October 08, 2021) When an entire week is observed as Wildlife Week, there are infinite possibilities to celebrate it. First observed in 1957, the week is celebrated with the vision of preserving the flora and fauna of our country. For this year's Wildlife Week, we bring you those national parks and biosphere reserves that are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. While every inch of the planet and all its areas of pristine wilderness need to be revered and conserved, we illustrate these heritage sites as their symboli...

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(October 06, 2021) Photostory by Sourabha Rao The sickle moon is a soft scatter behind the dark, rootless clouds that float above the jagged mountainline. On a stream here, moonlight spills generously but shatters and splinters incessantly without making a sound, stirring the waters with practised silence. The cold, numbed sense of monotony that had lurked back in the city is slowly unfreezing and it’s exalted interruption for the mind. But not everything about being in the mountains of the Himalayas ...

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(September 21, 2021) Photo story by Sourabha Rao There is the sentient forest with all its visible and elusive beings. There is all the resonance one is filled with, of non-human intelligences and awarenesses as one ventures into the verdant depths of it. There is an awakening that makes one realise how we are only a part of this glorious web of life although we tend to believe we dominate it. There is humility in this, then there is joy. And then there is plastic. The largest tiger reserve of India, Na...

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(September 15, 2021) Article by Sourabha RaoSometimes, all it takes for one to orient oneself to the direction of a fulfilling life is a gentle prod. And that is exactly what our Livelihood Support programme did to Vinod Kumar, a beneficiary who has now molded his life as a well-known building contractor.Vinod Kumar (one on the right)  in a building being constructed under his supervision.In the bucolic Madenuru Haadi, Vinod was born to a tribal family that knew the travails of living in a forest. He finished h...

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(August 25, 2021) By Sourabha Rao  Entropy. Perhaps it does not have to be dreadful a realisation that all this is going to decline into nothingness. For after all, can we even fathom nothingness? Perhaps it is that very possibility that brings value and beauty to what is now, here. Would we truly value something that would come with the promise of eternity? Does a part of us savour that rather perverse joy of that hunt – to value and worship something, sometimes above onese...

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(August 02, 2021) Here’s the fourth part of our ‘Birds of Chopta’ series – with the following seven birds and poems dedicated to each one of them. We hope you enjoy it.   Poems by Sourabha Rao. Photo courtesy shared below each image.     1. Speckled wood-pigeon     © Hemant Vashista     for now, there is a tree, and a pigeon the tree, mute and rooted that sense of assurance that only a tree can give the bird, lig...

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(July 29, 2021) Written by Sourabha Rao Phrases that convey something to the effect of ‘reconnecting with nature’ often seem poignant. Not because there are metaphorical allusions or poeticism for us to consider, but because they somehow seem to presuppose that it’s a connection that we are capable of severing. Especially for those of us dwelling in cities, getting away from the din into the lap of mountains or the verdant depths of rainforests, plunging into a river for a swim or going o...

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(July 05, 2021) ಕನ್ನಡಾನುವಾದ: ಸೌರಭಾ ರಾವ್ಜಗತ್ತಿನೆಲ್ಲೆಡೆ ಮನುಷ್ಯ ಮತ್ತು ವನ್ಯಜೀವಿಗಳು ಸ್ಥಳ ಮತ್ತು ಸಂಪನ್ಮೂಲಗಳನ್ನು ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವ ವಿವಿಧ ರೀತಿಗಳು ಇಬ್ಬರ ನಡುವಿನ ಸಂಕೀರ್ಣವಾದ, ಬಲವಾದ ಸಂಬಂಧವನ್ನು ಮತ್ತು ಅದರ ನಿರಂತರತೆಯನ್ನು ಇತಿಹಾಸದುದ್ದಕ್ಕೂ ದೃಢಪಡಿಸುತ್ತಾ ಬಂದಿವೆ. ಮಹಾರಾಷ್ಟ್ರದ ವಾರ್ಲಿ ಬುಡಕಟ್ಟು ಜನರಲ್ಲಿ ಇಂತಹ ಸಂಬಂಧವು ದೊಡ್ಡ ಮಾರ್ಜಾಲದ ರೂಪದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ವಾಘೋಬಾ ಎಂಬ ದೈವವಾಗಿ ಪ್ರಕಟವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಹುಲಿ ಮತ್ತು ಚಿರತೆ ಎರಡೂ ಪ್ರಾಣಿಗಳ ಲಕ್ಷಣಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿರುವ ವಾಘೋಬಾ ಇವೇ ಮಾರ್ಜಾಲಗಳಿಂದ ರಕ್ಷಣೆ ನೀಡುವ ಶಕ್ತಿ ಎಂದು ವಾರ್ಲಿ ಜನ ಪೂಜಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. 'ಶೇರಿಂಗ್ ಸ್ಪೇಸಸ್ ಅಂಡ್ ಎಂಟ್ಯಾನ್ಗಲ್ಮೆಂಟ್ಸ್  ...

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