" Trees are Earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven." ~ Rabindranath Tagore


Sacred Space: Environment 2

Tourism With Vision ~ Shobita Punja
'Value tourism' places the highest value on culture and natural heritage while providing visitors with value for their money and time. This strategy seeks to protect that heritage and culture which is the foundation of the travel industry in this country. Read More...

The Wilderness ~ Bittu Sahgal
The tigress lay smack in the middle of the jungle road 30 metres ahead of our jeep, unafraid, staring as us with alert, gleaming eyes. Read More...

Last of the Asiatic Lions ~ Bittu Sahgal
We are all aware that the Gir National Park is home to the last of the Asiatic Lions, and like many of our parks and sanctuaries, is in deep trouble. Read More...

The Ocean: Conquest ~ Somit Doshi
I am a mountaineer. I climb peaks. I walk on snow. I breathe air at 20,000 feet. I find nothing other than mountaineering really moving me. So what was I doing at the Westcoast ? Sea ?? Sand ?? Me ?? Read More...

Paradise in the wild ~ Shaili Chopra
Madumalai is a paradise in the wild. The name itself suggests visions of bees and honey. However, it is much more than that. Read More...

How to Kill The Tiger ~ Bittu Sahgal
Poachers are well aware of the fact that the Indian government has not been able to drum up the will to save the tiger and this is why they have stepped up their campaign to profit from the tiger. Read More...

A Man Before His Time ~ Bittu Sahgal
I cannot help but feel that, were he alive today, Gandhiji would have been forced by inner compulsion to launch yet another satyagrah. This time against us, the "haves" of India, because we have outdone the British in our acquisitive quest for `development'. Read More...

All the World's a Cage ~ Bittu Sahgal
When I was about twelve years old I went to the Gir National Park and seeing the lions roaming free in the wild gave me a thrill. But during the same visit I also went to the Junagadh zoo... Read More...

Tuskers in Trouble ~ Bittu Sahgal
That one tiger loses its life each day to poachers has come to be accepted even by the reluctant wildlife managers, under whose charge such tigers are supposed to be protected... Read More...

My Friend the Ocean ~ Shyamala Sathiaseelan
The word Ocean means to me a huge body of water covering two thirds of the earth. Why do we have to call the ocean by different names in different places? Read More...

Islands ~ Rohan Arthur
Another boy is born. Another good spell of fishing. Another goat is being led, bleating in confusion because of all the children milling around it, to the slaughter. The tide brings them in... Read More...

A New Beginning ~ Chandrika
The morning was fresh as the smell of dew drops! It was as if the sun had just turned a brand new page of life - all bright and ready for a new beginning....For it was a new day, wasn't it? Read More...

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Batty about Bhimgad ~ Bittu Sahgal
Karnataka is blessed by some of the most bio-diversity rich habitats on the Indian subcontinent. Some of the better known wildlife reserves such as Nagarhole... Read More...

Whipping Wild India ~ Bittu Sahgal
I sat and watched in wonder as giant squirrels leaped from branch to branch, often causing exquisite leaf birds to scatter from their quiet green havens. The call of the squirrels and birdsong accompanied me... Read More...

Poachers' Paradise ~ Bittu Sahgal
By some estimates, we are losing one tiger a day at the hands of poachers working in tandem with international traders. At least one elephant and two leopards lose their lives to the same network every day... Read More...

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Is There Anybody Out There? ~ Bittu Sahgal
During National Wildlife Week it occurs to me that it is time for human rights groups around the country to rally around those who ask that our environment be saved from the clutches of resource illiterates... Read More...

Surprise! ~ Bittu Sahgal
How does such a small insect protect itself in such a big jungle?" a young voice asked when last I took members of the Cub Club out to Borivli. "When the rain falls, won't these ants all drown?" asked another. "How do the ants talk to each other?" piped a third... Read More...

Hssssssss......... ~ Somit Doshi
As the snake charmer plays his melody, the snake emerges from the basket and originates a dance. But it is not dancing to the music, it only moves to the motion of the swaying flute. Snakes cannot hear... Read More...

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Seeds of Realisation ~ Bittu Sahgal
Plants moved from the sea to land and learned to propagate themselves by casting spores and seeds about at random. It was a very expensive way to multiply, using wind and water to spread their genetic material... Read More...

Bangalore: Garden City or Future Tomb? ~ Bittu Sahgal
I am fated to document the slow descent of India's cities and wildernesses into the depths of environmental decay. In the process of defending natural India I find myself constantly walking a tightrope between celebrating what remains of our natural heritage... Read More...

Young Dreams ~ Bittu Sahgal
I could barely hear myself think. The room reverberated to the sound of 250 throats imitating tigers. This was followed by calls that only the children recognised as belonging to the world of elephants... Read More...

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Every Breath You Take ~ Bittu Sahgal
Sitting high above Chowpatty with the sea spray obliterating my view of Nariman Point I understand why the rulers of the Silhara dynasty chose to construct a temple at Walkeshwar long centuries ago... Read More...

The Little Things In Life ~ Bittu Sahgal
The origin of insects is hidden in the mists of time. The sea and the North and South Poles are possibly the only environments that cannot support insect life (though pond skaters have been observed feeding on surface plankton as far as 1,000 miles away from the nearest land mass)... Read More...

Broadcast News ~ Bittu Sahgal
At eight the other morning, over the professional, jaunty sound of the news, I heard what must be one of the natural world's most accomplished broadcasters -- a whitebreasted kingfisher, better known to ornithologists as Halcyon smyrnensis... Read More...

Cruelty to Animals ~ Somit Doshi
The rabbit is subjected to cruel tests in the labs of multinationals. Its head is clamped in a hutch, its eyelids are pegged open to ensure its eyes remain open and a shampoo concentrate is dripped into its eyes... Read More...

The Spell of the Sea ~ Manuel Fernandes
I had dared the rough July-waves of the Arabian sea, and was now clinging to a small hand-hold on top of a motor launch. In the other hand I had a briefcase which contained small contraband. Read More...

A Source of Solace ~ Havovi Kerawalla
The ocean is sheer poetry in motion! As its waves swell and wash the shore with white flecks of foam I gaze at it transfixed. Read More...

Sighting the Ocean ~ Smitha Bhat
I do not want to waste words on frills and adjectives. All I can do is tell you what I see, and what I hear when I sit on the beach , in the limbo between day and day's end. Read More...

The Ocean in Verse ~ Shaili Chopra
MUSIC OF THE BLUE ,Exuding iceberg like warmth, Nurturing a bouquet of snow flaked roses, Transporting the spirit, Of serenading blue waters, Embracing the lightning of the world, In its imperfectly perfect mass. Read More...

My Friend the Ocean ~ Shyamala Sathiaseelan
The word Ocean means to me a huge body of water covering two thirds of the earth. Why do we have to call the ocean by different names in different places? Read More...

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The Ocean: Conquest ~ Somit Doshi
I am a mountaineer. I climb peaks. I walk on snow. I breathe air at 20,000 feet. I find nothing other than mountaineering really moving me. So what was I doing at the Westcoast ? Sea ?? Sand ?? Me ?? Read More...

Bird-watching in and around Corbett National ~ Vivek Tiwari
In May 1998, Mohit Agarwal and I made a 3-day trip to Corbett National Park. When we went there we found that the park was closed. Heavy unseasonal rains the day before had damaged all the roads ... Read More...


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Editor: Romola Butalia       (c) India Travelogue. All rights reserved.