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A few years ago, I cold-emailed Jairam Ramesh, then minister of rural development, with one question: how could urban individuals contribute to rural India? He called me from Gumla, Jharkand. “Do you know where Gumla is?” he asked. Sheepishly, I said No. After some small talk—his mother lives in Bangalore— I asked how the average urban citizen could help rural India, should they desire to. What were his top five priorities? Ramesh laughed and said that his top priorities such as land reform, rural infrastructure and employment were not things the average citizen could contribute to. “Those initiatives are for well meaning bankrupt governments, not for well meaning rich individuals like (your readers),” he said. “The bulk of investments in rural areas will have to come from government. To expect the private sector to make these huge investments is unrealistic.” Since then, Ramesh moved on to become a charismatic Minister of Environment and Forests. Born in Chikkamagalur, Jairam Ramesh is both a man of the forest and a man of the world. As a politician, minister, administrator and author, he has written and spoken about many topics. His most recent book, Indira Gandhi: a life in nature, is a portrait of a prime minister who happened to have a deep love of and empathy for the wild. In this freewheeling talk, Jairam Ramesh discusses his term as Minister and talks about this land, our land--that is home to the elephant, the great indian bustard and the tiger.
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Click here to download Jennifer Ackerman has been writing about science and nature for 30 years. Her most recent book, The Genius of Birds (Penguin Press, April 2016), explores the intelligence of birds. Her previous books include Ah-Choo! The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold(Twelve Press, 2010), Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream: A Day in the Life of Your Body(Houghton Mifflin, 2007), Chance in the House of Fate: A Natural History of Heredity(Houghton Mifflin 2001), and Notes from the Shore (Viking Penguin, 1995). A contributor to Scientific American, National Geographic Magazine, The New York Times, and many other publications, Jennifer is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including an NEA Literature Fellowship in Nonfiction, a Bunting Institute Fellowship, and a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Her articles and essays have been included in several anthologies, among them, Best American Science Writing, The Nature Reader, Best Nature Writing, Flights of Imagination: Extraordinary Writings About Birds, and The Penguin Book of the Ocean. Jennifer’s work aims to explain and interpret science for a lay audience and to explore the riddle of humanity’s place in the natural world, blending scientific knowledge with imaginative vision. Learn more about Jennifer Ackerman by visiting her website.
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Click here to download Dr. Jerry Jackson is a legend in ornithology, for his life-long fascination with the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. I met him on a windy even in Lakes Park, Fort Myers for a chat about the birds of Southwest Florida. Interview with Dr. Jerome Jackson, a noted ornithologist based in Florida. And we are talking about Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary near Naples, Florida. Located in the heart of the Everglades ecosystem of Southwest Florida, Corkscrew swamp is home to raptors, barred owls, songbirds—there were a ton of Northern Cardinals and Carolina Wrens when I visited in April. And then there are waders—Spoonbills, Egrets, Herons, and most iconically, the Wood Stork. Corkscrew is famous for that. The website corkscrew.audobon.org has a list of all the birds along with some informational nuggets. Wetlands are different from other water bodies (lakes or rivers) and land forms in two ways. Their water level should not exceed six meters according to the Ramsar Convention and the type of aquatic plants as Dr. Jackson said. Wetlands need to have standing water for long enough to nourish aquatic plants. The Ramsar site at ramsar.org lists wetlands in a variety of neat ways: you can see how many each country has. The US has 36 and India has 26. Listen to the episode where Dr. Jackson gives fascinating and humorous descriptions of wetlands, biodiversity, and adaptations of Anhingas, Loggerhead Shrikes, Swallow-tailed Kites and Woodpeckers. Dr. Jackson is the author of the book, In Search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, found here.
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The Keoladeo Ghana National Park is arguably India's most famous national park for birds. This episode offers you a bird's eye view of the park.
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Shashank Dalvi's Big Year of Birding all over India.
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This episode is about the peacock, not because it is the national bird of India, which it is. But because it gave rise to the second most important work in evolutionary biology. I speak of course of Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual selection. Darwin has referred to the Peacock just three times in his magnum opus, the origin of species. But the bird gave him so much grief. In 1860, a year after he published the origin of species, Darwin wrote to his friend, the botanist, Asa Gray, and said that “the sight of the feather in a peacocks tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick.” It took him 11 years to come up, with the ‘theory of sexual selection’ to explain the beauty of a peacock’s tail, and other ‘seemingly useless’ male ornaments. Darwin’s theory was that the male peacock’s spectacular feathers and fan-like tail evolved to attract peahens. Suitable mates. The more attractive the peacock is, the more its chances of mating and therefore passing on the genes to the next generation. There are all kinds of studies in response to this theory. Japanese researchers for example, have shown that the peahens didn’t care about the beauty of a peacock’s tail. Which sorta makes sense, because all peacocks look broadly the same. These japanese researchers observed 268 matings in a feral population of Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus), over 7 years. They could not link the elaborateness of a peacock’s tail with his mating success. The point is that the peacocks need to do and often do more than just spread their tails to win a mate. A lek is like a swayamwara. Male gather in a group, strut and preen, and compete with each other for a woman. Like other lekking animals—including the sage grouse, the hummingbird, and the Mediterranean fruit fly—they had evolved to display before the females of their species in a group of other males. And boy, could peahens be choosy: In the average peacock lek, around 5 percent of the males get the majority of the mates, while nearly all the rest get zero. Perhaps more than any other bird, the peacock is the stuff of story, legend, and mythology. When you admire Indian silk saris, particularly from Kanchipuram, you will notice a woven motif that comes again and again. The local word for it is called Annapakshi. It is woven in the borders of silk saris. For a long time, I thought that this referred to a peacock. In fact, it's history goes back to the arrival of the Aryans or Indo Iranians, who came to India from Persia. In Persian mythology, there is a bird called Simurgh. The simurgh has the same etymological cognate, it is derived from the same root as as the Sanskrit word syena which refers to a raptor, Eagle, or bird of prey. Here's the neat thing. If you look at the simurgh in tapestries, paintings or brass reliefs that come from Iran, the design looks remarkably similar to the Annapakshi and Kanchipuram silk saris.It has the head of a dog or Dragon and the tale of a peacock. Imagine that. This mythical beast that traveled from Iran all the way through the Hindu Kush mountains into North India and onwards down to Tamil Nadu where the Weavers of Kanchipuram incorporate it into the motifs that adorned the borders of the silk saris that they weave.
