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Conservation and environment news service that brings high quality, original reports from nature’s frontline in India.

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What if you could learn a tiger’s age, sex, or even reproductive status without ever seeing the animal? 🐅

Researchers are exploring whether odours from tiger urine and scat can reveal hidden clues about the big cats. Using chemical analysis and machine learning, scientists have found patterns that can distinguish tigers from leopards—and even identify signals linked to age, sex, pregnancy and lactation.

The method is still developing. Diet, temperature and environmental conditions can alter these chemical profiles, while scat can degrade quickly. But it could offer conservationists another non-invasive way to monitor elusive big cats alongside camera traps and genetic sampling.

'Study In Spotlight' brings new and surprising environmental research out of academic journals and into the spotlight, making research simple, engaging and easy to understand.

Study by Aditi, B., Desai, C., Sreenivas, D. et al. Non-Invasive Sampling of Odours from Tiger (Panthera tigris) and Leopard (Panthera pardus) for Wildlife Conservation. J Chem Ecol 52, 49 (2026).

Story by Sneha Mahale
Presenter: @sarikalivingwild
Script and Video Edit: @hagen.desa
Copy Edit: @kcmouli and Divya Kilikar by @mongabayindia

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8 days ago

Do you know what listening to animal sounds can reveal?

Most of us are familiar with the sounds of nature, like waking up to the sound of the dawn chorus, the symphony of bird calls that happens every morning. But, sounds like this are more than background noise, they’re valuable data.

Bioacoustics is a field of research that focuses on why and how living organisms produce and use sound. Researchers in India are using sound to locate and identify animals like bats, understand the behaviors of elephants in Assam, and understand the effectiveness of conservation strategies on birds in the Western Ghats.

For these stories and more, listen to “Wild Frequencies,” a 3-part podcast series where @mongabayindia shares the science and stories of sound from some of India’s leading bioacoustic researchers. The podcast is available on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Tell us your favorite nature sound or ask a question about bioacoustics in the comments ⬇️

ℹ️ Image and sound sources:
Photo of a Great Indian Hornbill by Anna Tarazevich. Accessible at pexels.com/photo/photo-of-a-black-and-yellow-hornbill-in-flight-6796555/

Sound of a Great Indian Hornbill (Buceros bicornis) by Vijay Ramesh

Sound of a Burrowing frog (Sphaerotheca breviceps) by Anurag Mishra, XC1074528. Accessible at xeno-canto.org/1074528

Sound of a Two-spotted Cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus) by Able Lawrence, XC796105. Accessible at xeno-canto.org/796105

Sound of a Pied Bush Chat (Saxicola caprata) by Peter Boesman, XC460236. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/460236 by @mongabayindia

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11 days ago

What changes when a traditional Kath Kuni home is replaced by concrete?

For Asha Thakur’s family, living in both kinds of homes made the difference impossible to ignore. While their traditional wooden house helped keep stored food fresh and offered a more comfortable indoor environment, the concrete home felt hotter in summer and colder in winter.

These everyday experiences have shaped the family’s decision to build their new home using the traditional Katkoni technique—an architectural practice rooted in local materials, climate and knowledge.

Watch the full film produced under Mongabay-India and @alt.eff’s Video Reporting Opportunity programme.

=A film by @rachnavermareports by @mongabayindia

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17 days ago

The ibisbill (Ibidorhyncha struthersii), an elusive bird confined to the boulder-strewn mountain rivers of the Himalayas, has long remained one of the region’s least-studied species, with no conclusive population estimate from India. It is a monotypic species, which means it is so distinct from other birds that it is the only member of its entire taxonomic family, Ibidorhynchidae. Therefore, it is extremely important to conserve the bird.

Researchers have now produced the first detailed climate-based assessment of the bird in North-Western Himalayas, identifying where its suitable climatic conditions exist today and how they may shift under future warming.

“Satellite telemetry-based studies conducted by us have provided pioneering insights into the movement ecology of the ibisbill, including its breeding patterns along elevational gradients and its remarkable nest-site fidelity,” shares Khursheed Ahmad. Findings from previous studies also indicate that ibisbills consistently return to the same nesting sites across successive breeding seasons.

Safeguarding free-flowing Himalayan rivers and their natural geomorphology is essential for the long-term survival of this unique and little-studied species, as well as many other river-dependent species. Because of their value as indicators of ecosystem health and as umbrella species, protecting them could benefit entire riverine ecosystems.

Read the full story by Hirra Azmat via link in bio.

Title slide image by Khursheed Ahmad. by @mongabayindia

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a day ago

On October 2, Maharashtra began issuing the Women Farmers Certificates (WFCs), which will open doors for lakhs of women who sow, tend, harvest and manage our agri-foods systems, as well as livestock, poultry and fisheries, but are often left out of the formal definition of a farmer. Maharashtra has shown political will and a clear sense of urgency in bringing women farmers’ needs into the spotlight and leading by example.

82% of the state’s rural female workforce is engaged in agriculture, yet they hold only about 15.5% of operational farmland. Consultations with women farmers revealed their inability to access many government schemes and subsidies as many are linked to land ownership. Access to schemes such as subsidised pumps, irrigation subsidies, crop insurance, livestock insurance, Kisan Credit Card, and access to agricultural credit were hard to come by.

They suggested lowering interest rates for credit taken in women’s names or amending the existing Lakshmi Mukti Yojna to incentivise families to add women’s names on family land records. They highlighted that PM-KISAN Yojna is meant to benefit farmer families, however, requires a farmer ID that is usually linked with men’s bank accounts, thereby reducing women’s direct access to such benefits.

Read the full commentary by Soumya Swaminathan via link in bio.

Title slide image by Mahesh Maske. by @mongabayindia

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2 days ago

Heatwaves, floods, erratic rainfall and droughts are changing the conditions in which infectious diseases spread. From contaminated water sources to shifts in the distribution of disease carrying insects, extreme weather can increase the risk of outbreaks, sometimes in places and at times where they were not previously expected.

In India, poorly managed drainage, ageing sewage systems and gaps in water infrastructure can further compound these risks. While the country is developing climate health surveillance and early warning systems, experts say gaps in data, infrastructure and coordination could limit the ability to predict and prevent outbreaks.

How can India move from responding to disease outbreaks to anticipating and preventing them?

Read our latest story to understand how climate change is reshaping infectious disease risks in India, and what it will take to strengthen public health preparedness.

Read the full story by Rupsy Khurana (@painting_sifaka) > link in bio by @mongabayindia

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3 days ago

Walk into any vegetable market today, and one thing that becomes obvious is that not only are we all eating the same vegetables, but also the varieties look so similar.

“Bright red tomatoes, perfectly shaped onions and dark green leafy vegetables — we associate good quality and good flavour with a certain visual, and then one variety becomes the representative for the entire category,” explains Elizabeth Yorke, a chef, food researcher and co-founder of the food systems collective, Edible Issues.

Over the last three years, along with Bengaluru-based community supported agriculture (CSA) network Spudnik Farms, Edible Issues has worked on highlighting the diversity and culinary significance of tubers through the Rooting for Tubers initiative.

Yorke further adds that markets today are built around the idea that each vegetable must look a certain way. “The idea that tomatoes come in different colours and shapes or may not even be red all the time – those references have been eliminated,” she says.

The food researcher explains that apart from the lack of visibility, where consumers don’t find local or traditional vegetables in the market, culinary confidence is also low when they encounter some of these lesser-known vegetables.

Story by Sharmila Vaidyanathan > link in bio by @mongabayindia

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4 days ago

Researchers in Himachal Pradesh set up camera traps across the state to track the snow leopard in 2016-19. In the search for the elusive cat, their camera traps encountered something else: several birds of the group Galliformes. And the most concerning part? Most of the birds were found occurring outside protected areas.

They revisited the data to identify species that warranted greater attention. Pheasants turned out to be among the top candidates. The survey used 284 camera traps across 10 sites and detected six Galliformes species. Chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar) and Himalayan monal (Lophophorus impejanus) were the most frequently detected species, followed by Himalayan snowcock (Tetraogallus himalayensis).

Conservation in the Himalayas is often built around flagship or umbrella species such as the snow leopard. Single‐species studies are essential for addressing extinction risk. However, the study argues that multi-species approaches can reveal whether umbrella‐based conservation strategies actually deliver wider biodiversity benefits.

Galliformes species may lack the appeal of a snow leopard, but they play important roles in mountain ecosystems. Their relatively high biomass also makes them an important food source for predators, including raptors and martens.

Read the full story by Kasturi Das via link in bio.

Title slide image courtesy of Himachal Pradesh Forest Department and Nature Conservation Foundation.

Edit: We regret an error in the image caption on slide 5. Please note the image features a Himalayan golden eagle. by @mongabayindia

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16 days ago

The monsoon in Mumbai does not only mean floods; it also means increasing fears that the next tree to fall could be the one you’re walking under. Between June 22 and July 17, 902 trees have been uprooted, and 1,251 branches have fallen across public spaces in Mumbai.

In a span of a week in June-July, three people died in separate tree-related incidents. On June 30, 11-year-old Vihaan Srivastava died when a 60-year-old tree fell on the school bus he was on, in Chembur. Kumar Hasan Raza Jahangir Alam Syed, 18, died when a large branch struck him while he was riding a motorcycle in Aarey Colony, on July 5. On the same day, Yunus Kundawala, 63, died after he was struck by a falling tree in Kurla.

Experts have been cautioning about the dangers of concretising tree bases, especially during strong wind conditions, when they may be uprooted. In 2015, Vanashakti, a non-profit, approached the National Green Tribunal leading to an order that de-concretisation be implemented in a phased manner, ward by ward.

Unscientific pruning, conducted every year before monsoon across the city, compounds risks too. The Tree Authority of the BMC, the only body that can cut or trim trees, does not have an arborist, who could help implement techniques such as selectively shortening branches to reduce wind load or create space; removing dead or dying branches, etc.

Read the full story by Esha Lohia (@eshalohia) via link in bio.

Title slide image courtesy of Mumbai Citizen for Trees. by @mongabayindia

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17 days ago

India’s drought declaration process is dictated by the 2016 Manual for Drought Management, drafted by the Department of Agriculture under the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW). The Manual was revised as a result of a landmark case filed in the Supreme Court by the political organisation Swaraj Abhiyan in 2015.

The petition was instrumental in presenting drought as a slow-onset disaster whose impacts went beyond deficiencies in rainfall. It argued that prevailing protocols failed to recognise drought at the sub-divisional level, and that as a result, existing schemes and relief measures were often ineffectively targeted.

The court issued its order in May 2016 and directed the central government to create a more detailed protocol for drought declaration. As per the updated manual, drought is measured through indices covering rainfall, vegetation cover (via remote sensing), local hydrology (reservoir storage, groundwater, streamflow), cropping patterns (area sown, soil moisture), and other factors like fodder availability and outmigration levels.

Read the full story by Simrin Sirur > link in bio by @mongabayindia

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20 days ago

Antibiotic resistance is not confined to people; wildlife can also encounter and carry resistant bacteria, with birds picking them up from human-associated environments. As they move between habitats, they may spread these bacteria through their faeces, making them useful candidates in tracking the movement of antibiotic resistance in the environment. A new study of red-naped ibises in Udaipur, Rajasthan, has now found diverse bacteria in their faeces, including multidrug-resistant strains.

“[The red-naped ibis’s] year-round presence, broad habitat use, feeding behaviour and frequent contact with human-influenced environments make it a useful species for investigating how environmental bacteria and antibiotic resistance may circulate at the wildlife-human-environment interface,” says Vijay Kumar Koli, an assistant professor and in-charge head of the Wildlife Research Laboratory at Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, and a co-author of the study.

The antibiotic tests found resistance to several drugs. All the Enterobacterales isolates were resistant to linezolid and rifampicin (used in the treatment of tuberculosis, among other diseases). Of the 30 isolates tested, 23% showed intermediate resistance to amoxicillin, while 50% were resistant. Similarly, 30% showed intermediate resistance to ampicillin. Ampicillin and amoxicillin are broad-spectrum penicillin antibiotics.

Previous studies have reported antibiotic-resistant and multidrug-resistant bacteria in other wild and waterbird species, including cattle egrets in Udaipur. However, the researchers name several limitations to the study; it was conducted only in Udaipur and esistance percentages apply to the isolates tested and not to the entire red-naped ibis population.

Read the full story by Sneha Mahale via link in bio.

Title slide image by Utkarsh Prajapati. by @mongabayindia

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21 days ago

In Tiriya and surrounding villages, mahua is more than a source of livelihood—it is deeply woven into local traditions and culture. As communities gather mahua flowers, they are also finding ways to prevent the fires used to clear dry leaves from spreading into the forest.

But when these fires get out of control, they threaten not just trees and livelihoods, but traditions rooted in mahua and sal.

Watch the full film produced under Mongabay-India and @alt.eff’s Video Reporting Opportunity programme.

A film by @swaraa.g @dobhalprakhar by @mongabayindia

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22 days ago