Here we are again.
The end of a year. The last leaf in 2021. If you are wondering where the months went by, you are not alone. Despite the weekly schedules, the monthly excel sheets and the constant Nature inFocus Contest reminders and announcements, we are equally flummoxed by December's arrival.
If there is one word that could aptly summarise 2021, that would be resilience. Through a devastating second wave of the pandemic, followed by large-scale vaccination drives, we heard stories of resilience, grit and hope. We are grateful for the timely scientific advancements, and we are ever grateful to the frontliners who haven't had it easy in what feels like a long time now. Most of all, we are grateful for our community of photographers and contributors who showed us resilience by example and kept the Nature inFocus portal as busy as it has always been.
Moments of introspection by the River Sharda, fascinating details on animal courtship rituals, some croak studio vibes, the bizarre world of spider hunting tricks and an insightful conversation with a leading herpetologist—we shared it all and then some. Here are our favourite stories of the year 2021!
As we warily step into the new year, our resolution remains the same—to continue to encourage conversations and spark interest about the natural world.
Here is to a healthy and peaceful 2022!
The Many Worlds Of River Sharda
Rekha Warrier
I had never known a place whose name is an onomatopoeia, until we arrived in Boom. It is a speck of a town located on the banks of the Sharda river, north of Tanakpur, in Uttarakhand, India. In the early part of the twentieth century, the British logged the magnificent Sal forests that draped the hills in the area. The logged trees would then be dropped into the river off the high river banks from where they would make their way to saw mills downstream. The incessant booming sound of trees falling into the river is what gave the town its rather unusual name. Across the river, on its eastern bank, was Nepal. That evening, for the first time in my life, I set eyes on foreign soil. A sparsely wooded land with a few thatched homes, a rooster, some children, and a dog revealed themselves. Everything seemed to be marked by the passage of reams of time, except for the frolicking children, who stared back at us for a moment before fluttering away into the woods.
How A Ladakhi Village Came Together To Keep Leopards And Wolves Away From Livestock
Rigzen Dorjay
Livestock killings by wild predators such as Snow Leopards (Panthera uncia) and Tibetan Wolf (Canis lupus filchneri) cause unprecedented losses for local herders. In return, wild predators are met with retaliatory killing by the affected communities. These negative human-wildlife interactions end up being harmful to both people and wildlife.
A Wild Sheep Chase
Udayan Rao Pawar
It was a cold, frosty morning at the Sarychat-Ertash State Nature Reserve in Kyrgyzstan. I had stepped out to answer nature’s call, unaware of the most beautiful scene that was about to unfold before me. As the sun’s rays lit up the snow-clad peaks, there, on a ridge directly above where I was, appeared the most magnificent Tien Shan Argali. Standing proudly erect with its head held high and its rich breeding pelage with swollen white neck ruff glowing in the golden light of the dawn. I sat mesmerised for a while. This was exactly the scene I had cherished to capture for so long, my dream shot. A trophy hunter would have raised his Weatherby or Remington on him to shoot below his withers, instead, I ran back to the camp to fetch my Canon. By the time I returned, the Argali (Mongolian word for ram) had disappeared. I rushed after him, but on cresting the ridge he had melted away into the undulating grassy plains and was nowhere to be seen.
Decoding Dholes: 10 Things You Should Know
Arjun Srivathsa
The Dhole or the Asiatic Wild Dog is a formidable predator of the Indian jungle. Those of us who have seen this fantastic beast in the wild and are familiar with its habits can vouch for the strong emotion that it evokes. But how did the Dhole get its name? It is not fully clear. Its Latin name Cuon alpinus loosely translates to the "dog-like animal from the mountains." Although commonly referred to as a "wild dog," the Dhole is not a true dog. Its closest relatives are the painted dogs of Africa and the bush dogs of South America. The word Dhole' itself may be a misnomer derived from thola, the Kannada word for wolf.
Indian Wildlife’s Perilous Dog Problem
Team Nature inFocus
It is estimated that there are 60 million dogs in India, of which 35 million are free-ranging/feral dogs or as we urban folk refer to them – stray dogs. These dogs are highly dependent on human-provided food, but in rural areas and spaces in and around wildlife reserves, where there is a larger population of wildlife, feral dogs have ample opportunities to hunt wildlife and interact with them on multiple levels. A 2017 study highlighted how dogs have reportedly attacked 80 species, of which 31 are listed as Threatened on the IUCN Red list, including four Critically Endangered species. Most of the attacks were carried out by packs of dogs, and 45 per cent of these attacks lead to the death of the prey. Nearly 48 per cent of the incidents were reported in and around wildlife protected areas.
Varad Giri: Moulding The Future Of Indian Herpetology
Nikhil Sreekandan
Having discussed geckos, frogs and caecilians (a group of limbless, vermiform or serpentine amphibians) for about an hour, over the phone, I asked Varad Giri what he thinks has been the biggest highlight of his career. In response, he narrated the following anecdote.
"I conduct these training programmes where I take people out to the forest. In Amboli, there is a lizard called the Hemidactylus house gecko. I used to see them all the time; they are one of the commonest house geckos. Aur sab logon ko mein bolta hoon (To everyone I used to say), this is Hemidactylus brooki. Ek din kya ho gaya, maine sab bachhon ko bola ki abhi kya karte hain, ek individual pakdo, uska photograph lelo aur uski taxonomy, species identify karo (One day what happened was that I told a group of kids who were attending the training programme to catch an individual and identify the taxonomy and species). After two hours, they come and say, ‘Hey Varad, this is not matching with anything’. I was so confident that I asked them to recheck. But it turned out to be a new species. This incident made me plant my feet back on the floor. The species was eventually named Hemidactylus varadgirii."
Tune In For A Frog Orchestra!
Nature Conservation Foundation
With more than 400 species of amphibians, and about 50 per cent of them endemic, India has an incredible diversity occupying a wide range of habitats – from streams to the tree canopies. The Anamalai Hills, south of the Palghat Gap, is an important hotspot within the Western Ghats for frog diversity. Most of the frogs found in the rainforests here are endemic species, restricted to a narrow distribution range, making them vulnerable to habitat loss and disturbance, climate change, and other environmental changes.
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Notes From Nongkhyllem And A Khasi Folktale
Biang La Nam Syiem
It was early May in the subtropical hill forests of the Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary and Reserve Forest. I was on my last week of fieldwork for my postgraduate dissertation, studying a forest bird assemblage on the northern slopes of Meghalaya, my home state in northeast India. My work was to understand how different guilds of birds (groups of birds with similar forms, diets and habits) were affected by vegetation in and around the Nongkhyllem reserve. To that end, almost every morning for a little over three hours after sunrise, I was recording the different birds that I saw or heard and taking measurements of the surrounding vegetation for another three hours.
The Extraordinary Tricks Of Spiders
Jithesh Pai
When we hear or read the word ‘spider’, the first thing that comes to mind is the Marvel superhero Spider-Man. But when we see spiders in real life, our immediate reaction is to be creeped out by these multi-legged crawlers, mostly because of the many myths that surround them. If you are one among them, here is a spider appreciation article that you must read and if you are not one to be creeped out by spiders, well, you will love to read this.
A Mixtape From The Forests Of Central India
Pooja Choksi & Siddharth Biniwale
Studying the auditory dimension of a forest is a data-intensive, scientific undertaking, but it is also an absolute pleasure to eavesdrop on a host of melodious and some not-so melodious vocalising species. Just like one does with a camera trap, we leave out acoustic recorders in the forest to record all frequencies between 0 to 24000 Hz, which include vocalising species audible and inaudible to humans. When we retrieve our acoustic recorders, we're always excited to hear what awaits us in these recorded soundscapes. From finding oneself smack in the middle of a drama unfolding in the form of a possible tiger or leopard hunt to experiencing the Common Hawk-Cuckoo season in full swing, these acoustic delights remain hidden in gobs of data and jump out at us as we carefully analyse the data.
Captivating Courtship Rituals From The Animal Kingdom
Team Nature inFocus
The animal world is driven by purpose. Every action is driven by a dogged determination to achieve one of three things – to stay alive, to eat, to procreate. One might think that of the three, staying alive and eating to stay alive might be more important, but, given that numerous species give up food entirely for long periods and almost die trying to find a mate, it is safe to say that reproduction comes first. And the sheer variety of methods they use to find a partner and then fight to win the right to mate are just off the charts. The drama and excesses of their courtship and mating rituals can put all the traditional romantic overtures of the human world to shame.
Snow Leopard Lodge: In The Abode Of The Grey Ghost
Team Nature inFocus
Not so long ago, the very notion of venturing into Snow Leopard country in search of the magnificent cat had seemed like a lost cause. The boundless scale of Snow Leopard country combined with the elusiveness of the cat made it one of the most difficult animals to track in the wild. But that all changed dramatically in the past 20 years or so. Unlike the increasingly isolated Protected Areas found in the rest of India, which are becoming islands within a sea of humans, Ladakh, with its vast swathes of wilderness and tiny human populations, reverses the situation. There is much to explore outside the limits of Ladakh’s Hemis National Park—all of the Ladakh–Transhimalayas is essentially a wildlife sanctuary.
