Marigold is a long lasting bloomer bearing numerous single, yellow to orange flowers on each stem. It is commonly found in the high ranges of Kerala, but grows throughout India. These flowers are mainly used for garlands, Temple offerings and medicinal purposes.
In India systematic forest management was begun about forty years ago, under difficulties—presented by the character of the country, the prevalence of running fires, opposition from lumbermen, settlers, etc.—not unlike those which confront us now. Of the total area of government forests, perhaps 70,000,000 acres, 55,000,000 acres have been brought under the control of the forestry department,—a larger area than that of all our national parks and reservations. Continue reading
Ithaca, NY
An ongoing exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art asks visitors to consider the connections between art and science — and how they each attempt to explore the why, when and how of our existence. “African Cosmos: Stellar Arts” illustrates how the stars and planets we see in the sky have been influencing African art and ritual for generations. Continue reading
Photo credit: Ramesh Kidangoor
Common Indian Crow is one of most common butterflies in and around the Periyar Tiger Reserve. The wings of the butterfly are brown in color with two lines of white spots on the lower sides. Continue reading
Trivandrum
I’m on patrol with the forest rangers of Gola rainforest national park. I’m spending two days with them, gathering data and hopefully preventing poaching as well as illegal mining and subsistence farming within the park. My aim is to get to know the rangers and experience a day in their life. I want to know what challenges they face as well as what gives them the most satisfaction at the end of each day.
Uda Walawe, Sri Lanka
Yarek Waszul
From the New York Times (click the image to the left to go to the source), a recent story covered a topic that one of our contributors would likely post on, if he was not on the road, toting his mobile device around in that cute sleeping bag. As an aside, Neema was quoted in a story related indirectly to this one:
Speed, instant gratification, accessibility — these are a few of the appealing hallmarks of digital technology. It’s no coincidence that we love our smart wireless devices: Humans are a notoriously impatient species, born with a preference for immediate rewards.
Periyar Tiger Reserve is one of the richest biodiversity hot spot in the Western Ghats. In fact, of the nearly 252 species of orchids found in Kerala, 145 are seen in this region. Foxtail Orchid belongs to the Vanda family, a species widely growing above 800 meters of semi-evergeen and moist deciduous forests. Foxtail Orchid is the state flower of both Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala
The common garden lizard is a medium- sized, arboreal lizard with an oval head and laterally compressed body. In the male, the cheeks are muscular and swollen. Females are considerably smaller. Continue reading
Carl on McClures Beach
This is the second in a series of posts on a summer trip; see the first here.
In the afternoon we were off, driving up the west coast without any real plans; we knew we wanted to be in Seattle in four or five days, but that intervening time period was ours to spend as we wished. From a quick glance at the map, we thought that Point Reyes, a national coastline a few hours north of the bay area, Continue reading
If you did not know his poetry already, here is as good an introduction as any. If you knew his work but had not seen or heard him, this is worth the few minutes he commands of your attention. And if you thought poetry was in decline as an art form due to decreased interest in a multi-media-saturated modern world, you may have been right; or wrong.
Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. A Qatar Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Thanks to Green Blog for the story:
At the end of next year, Qatar Airways is scheduled to open a new airport that will include a 25-meter swimming pool and squash courts, among other amenities. But it will also be extraordinary from an energy standpoint because it will pump airline fuel made from natural gas.
Qatar has relatively little oil and vast supplies of natural gas. Continue reading
Coast Guard Museum NW. Citizen scientists have been invited to help transcribe logbooks from legendary American vessels like the Bear, which plied Arctic waters for four decades for the United States Revenue, the precursor of the Coast Guard.
An interesting historical take on a newfangled trend (click the image above to go to the source):
For many years now, volunteers working from home —people like you— have been able to help scientists with important problems.
In the first wave of these “citizen science” projects, people simply lent their computers to help solve problems that could be farmed out in pieces to thousands of machines. Continue reading
Built in 1268 A.D., Chennakeshava Temple is located in the Mysore District of Karnataka. This temple is famous for its elaborate artisanship. The temple stands on a raised, star-shaped plinth in the middle of a spacious enclosure containing sixty-four cells.
Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala
Organikos 