Gracula religiosa is the latin name of the Hill Myna, a beautiful bird seen along the Western Ghats and associated South Indian hills. It is one of the endemic birds here and has recently been elevated to a full species, and rechristened Southern Hill Myna. Not getting into the boring details of why this was done, and how this is relevant to anybody, the above image...

I was in Delhi over the weekend on work and I was able to catch up on some Sunday birding with Delhibird members. Just thought of sharing my experience with them, this being my first birding outing in Delhi. Due thanks to Gopi Sundar, Anshu, KB Singh and a diverse group of members from Delhibird well represented in age, gender and profession! A particularly hot...

It’s an interesting puzzle, this bird flu. On one side, while birdwatchers are all disturbed about even the suggestion of wild bird culling as a control measure to prevent spread of bird flu by migratory birds, on the other hand, for the public health professionals, it is just among various available ‘vector-control’ measure…..kinda like...

My friend Sunil, once remarked that nostalgia is a sign of old age, and if that is what I am suffering from, may it be so……As I sit in my ill-lit room in Antwerp, eating microwave heated, yesterday cooked, lemon rice, I think about those wonderful days in the hills…..and my heard dances with BR Hills (No Daffodils there… :) As you enter the...

Diclofenac is one of the most commonly used Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. Just to give you an idea of the magnitude, I take the human example. Although, I really dont know to what extend ‘human diclo cycle’ touches birds, as an example, it would be good. There are about 1600 odd government health centres in Karnataka – just one state. A govt....

In the winter of 2004, from my abode in BR Hills, where I was dwelling then, I had all the time in the world to philosophize! I was writing about the artist-scientist ‘polarities’ and one of my senior colleagues in BR Hills, responded to my turmoil by throwing some light. Stephen Jay Gould is a wonderful companion through such confusions on lonely...